The Infinity Crisis
by jjpdn
Summary: Do good men make good rulers? Faced with a new world in which their powers make them influential, team RWBY tries to help out of the goodness of their own hearts, for better... or for worse. (name/summary change) [Alternate History caused by Time Travel, Sensitive Matters]
1. Chapter 1: The Snap

**A/N (August 4, 2019): Thought I might as well post on AO3, curious about the community there.**

 **A/N (July 19, 2019): Simplified the unimportant RWBY stuff.**

 **A/N: (Feb 11, 2019): Thought to make the time travel aspect more explicit.**

 **So there! I'm revamping this chapter with 2000% more effort! If you guys thinks certain things should be reverted, feel free to comment what and why. Politely, plz.**

 **For people who are rereading, I've changed the beginning, and added a new scene at the end. Fixes in characterization everywhere, though.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the MARVEL/RWBY things in this fic.**

 **Beta: Path of a Writer and Rune**

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

A robed, bald, Celtic sorceress knelt, still as stone, on the cool, paved floor of the Kamar-Taj, training ground of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

For millennia the sorcerers of this order protected the Sanctums: three magical bases that stabilized the fabric of spacetime and stopped otherworlders from coming through. The shield was so powerful that even gods had a hard time passing.

And now, it was cracking.

"Ancient One, the seal in the London Sanctum is also in the process of overloading." one of her disciple, a plump, asian man reported, as he stepped into the room.

She didn't respond. Through meditation, her metaphysical form had separated from her body and sought the cause of the disturbance. After all, she had to know what they were facing before they could fight it.

Her spirit flew through the ceiling and into the lower troposphere, then made another jump straight into space. Then, she phased out of the real world to check the barrier. She caught athe glimpse of something glimmering like glas-

Blinding pain struck her, snapping her form back into her body. She awakened with a gasp.

"No more time..." the sorceress realized.

She was right. It turned dark around them as the Sanctums failed and eldritch, incomprehensible evils easily tore the simple barrier between realms. Dormammu, Shuma-Gorath, and demons all peaked through and saw easy pickings. All at the same time, they reached out, excited to finally be able to wrap their claws around the planet.

The Ancient One readied herself. She wasn't about to go down without a fight, but without the Sanctums, beating even one of these entities was impossible. Wong did the same, willing to fall in the path of duty.

...and then the darkness abruptly disappeared.

Confused, but still wary, she checked her own connection to the dark dimension where Dormammu reigned. If the Lord of Chaos had come through, the link would have either been severed or have grown so strong that it'd taken her over. It was untouched.

Using a mystical, two-finger ring on her hand, she opened up a portal to each of the Sanctums and peered through. Each of them was undamaged, but the magic that made them do their job was gone. Now, even more baffled, she checked the status of normal population centers like New York City and Beijing.

Nothing wrong, they were still bustling with life.

"How are we not slain?" her disciple whispered in disbelief.

For the first time since very long ago, she had no answer.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

It was supposed to be a normal day.

After the mess that was Mountain Glenn, the four girls, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, composing team RWBY had thought that they'd be getting some rest before the Vytal Festival spiced stuff up again. There was still school, so no oversleeping, but the monotony of Professor Port's class was almost welcome compared to the release of Grimm monsters inside the city of Vale's walls a while ago. It was pure luck that nobody had gotten hurt during that incident as there were too many ways for it to have gone wrong.

Wasn't a little bit of peace and bonding time earned?

Boom. It was a loud, indirect, digital sound.

"The heck?"

The rotund professor at the front of the classroom turned away from the blackboard to look at a female student in the front. The girl's quiet exclamation was amplified by the shape of the room, which would be a strange design choice for a lecture room if this wasn't Beacon. In this prestigious hunstmen academy where the best of the best were trained to become slayers of Grimm and protectors of humanity, the classes themselves were small enough that there could be a decent amount of classroom interactions.

To allow everyone a good view of each other, be it the person lecturing or the audience, the room was constructed so that every row of seats was about two meters higher than the one in front. It wasn't an efficient use of space, but did allow the professor to see clearly that the student was staring at his portable electronic device.

"Now, now young woman! I am a very generous man and allow many things, but I draw the line at interrupting my lessons!" He scolded boisterously in his deep but animated voice. "The atmosphere of heroism and justice I have built up is very important to understanding my story. Think of your fellow students!" His very serious, thick, grey, walrus-like mustache jiggled as he talked, very seriously.

In a way, the professor was correct even if an 'atmosphere of heroism and justice' made no sense. Most of the students were actually asleep before the student's exclamation, so any noise did, in fact, bother the other students.

The ones who were awake were reading books, like Blake, or struggling to not fall asleep, like the ever studious Weiss. To the right of both sat Ruby, who was making designs for improvements on her mecha-shift scythe Crescent Rose, and finally, Yang, the student who had interrupted the class, who was currently staring at her holographic mobile device in confusion.

Strangely, the chastised student didn't seem to care much about what her professor was saying. Her eyes were focused on her device. Beside her, her partner Blakee, didn't even glance, being used to Yang's antics. It was her sister, Ruby, who reacted.

"Yang..." the fifteen year old girl whined, "You made me draw a crooked line!" Then she got a glimpse of the screen. "Whaaat… are you watching the news?" she said incredulously.

That snapped the older sister out of her shock. "Hey! We do have that essay with Professor Peach due tomorrow, you know!" She defended.

Ruby blinked her silver eyes innocently. "Wait, she actually exists? I thought her lessons were just a daydream during Prof. Port's class."

Yang shook her head, amused. "Enough about that! Look at this!" She pushed the device to the front of her sister's face. "A bullhead just crashed into the news station!" A bullhead was a type of flying vehicle that looked like a helicopter without rotors. Instead, it used dust levitation technology to fly.

"You already tried this," the younger sister glanced at the screen, a bit offended, "I'm not that gullible!"

Before Yang could assure her that it wasn't a joke, she heard Professor Port tapping his foot in annoyance at being ignored. "Miss Rose and Miss Xiao-long!" Ruby eeped at being called out. "I am very disappointed in your behavior!"

 _Bang_.

Some random student collapsed bonelessly on his desk, falling fast asleep after the fourth word.

"Sorry, Prof Port!" Yang apologized, putting her device away...

The professor continued as if a student hadn't gotten knocked out by his voice. "I have half a mind to assign you a detenti - arghh!" He collapsed in the middle of his sentence.

"Professor Port!"

The rest of the students woke up to their professor clenching his gut in pain.

"Something's… something's draining my aura!" Aura was a protective barrier surrounding aura-users, huntsmen, and huntresses, that was projected from their unlocked soul. Professor Port's aura was flaring around him as if defending him from attack. The problem was, there was nothing visible attacking him.

Before the awakening students could react, the man's aura cracked and shattered like glass. He stared in confusion at his body as he turned to dust, starting from the hand he used to clench his gut to his head.

There was a moment of silence, before the same thing started happening to the students. Friends could only stare speechless as their comrades and teammates went through the same process as their professor, unsure what to do to help, though most were just stunned at the sudden intrusion to their uneventful lives.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

Blake knew that the world wasn't fair.

For the length of known human history, the sub-race of faunus were treated like animals due to their animal features. They were forced to do manual work and lived agonized, short lives, enslaved by their counterparts.

The Faunus Wars changed that. Tens of thousands of faunus rose up against their oppressors, fighting to be recognized as sentient beings with inherent rights. As the dead piled up on both sides, the humans realized that it would be less costly to give into the faunus' demands. And so they gave up, but only on the surface.

Prejudice was not changed by fancy words on paper.

Blake gripped her book harder. Hidden by her bow, her ears twitched. Her reading material detailed well the betrayals that collapsed the faunus alliance and only made the fire within her stronger.

...just like it did for the many who joined the terrorist organisation, the White Fang.

The world wasn't fair, but that didn't mean it was right to go around blowing up civilians for crimes many didn't even know they were committing. The White Fang thought it poetic that they decided to don the mask of monsters after being treated like monsters for so long, but all Blake saw was a bunch of murderers. Just fellow brothers and sisters, falling down a dark path that would only end in everyone's, humans' and faunus' alike, destruction.

And that's just why Blake tries so hard to fight for her dream of a perfect world. Because sometimes, it feels like she's the only one standing in the middle. With the human world indifferent, and the faunus' roaring for blood, she stands in the shadows of the no-man's land that no politician would cross.

So, when her extremely sensitive two sets of ears heard a distant explosion and also heard it be echoed on Yang's phone, she knew the inevitable had happened. A successful terrorist attack on the city of Vale. When innocent students around her starting disintegrating, she knew it was even worse. Maybe some kind of gas attack?

The world wasn't fair. It gave her impossible tasks and set impossible goals. But even then, she'll face her destiny head on, for to her…

There was no more worthy of a cause.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

Over in Vale, there were no terrorists igniting fear. No, something was happening that was even worse.

Amity Colosseum was a marvel of modern engineering. It was humanity's symbol of peace, showing that the four kingdoms could thrive together and defy even gravity itself. Made of so much intricate machinery that even a planet could be called less complicated, no one could stare at the floating stadium without awe.

However, its complexity betrayed it when out of nowhere, half its workers turned to dust. The chain of command disintegrated into confusion as automatic systems awaited instruction from people that just weren't there. When a well-oiled machine loses a bunch of gears mid-use, the results aren't pretty.

So, Amity slowly fell to earth like the head of an executioner's axe, surrounded by other similarly pilot-less falling aircrafts, and set the world aflame.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

The Grimm in the surrounding forests lifted up their heads. The monsters _smelled_ the fear.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

The students of Beacon did not have time to grieve or even think, for then the Grimm incursion alarms blared. A look outside showed that the sky had turned black by the sheer amount of flying Grimm. What happened in the classroom had happened all across Remnant and the resulting uncontrollable negativity attracted never before seen numbers of Grimm.

Team RWBY didn't even get a chance to look for the rest of their friends before the Nevermores tore at the walls of Beacon. Students screamed and ran for the door, but in their hurry, fellow classmates were trampled under their feet. All of them were huntsmen, but none had their weapons.

The four girls of team RWBY rushed to their weapons' lockers, but found their way blocked by Grimm who had broken through the walls. Debris now littered the corridor. The monsters roared before charging. Yang stepped to the front of the group to protect her teammates. Her combat style focused on her fists anyways, so even without her weapons, she was more effective than the rest.

"Run! I'll catch up!" The blond brawler called as she readied herself.

Her sister wouldn't have it. "No! I can help too!"

Yang batted a muscled arm away from her using just her aura, then spin kicked the first Beowolf into a wall. "You can't fight without Crescent Rose anyway! Run!" The wording was bad, but she had to concentrate on her enemies.

Weiss snapped at her. "Yang! Don't be a dunce, I have glyphs to speed us up! Blake, grab her!"

The faunus rapidly reacted and did as she was asked. Yang yelped as her teammate kicked her legs from under her and fell into Blake's arms. Beneath the four of them, a white glyph lit up. There was a moment of stillness as more monsters approached them before Weiss sent them flying down the hallway.

The four of them zoomed left and right, trying to find where everyone else was so that they could mount a unified defense. No sign of their friends, team JNPR. They must have lost them in the initial rush to all their weapons.

Weiss halted them before one of the many rooms along Beacon's halls, where she then stumbled.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, worried. Her teammate was panting from the exertion of making all those glyphs.

"I… need… a moment…"

More Grimm were breaking through the walls and some parts of the school were even coming down. Distant rumbles of gunfire and screaming were hidden by the crumbling of walls and roars of monsters. Light flickered as dust lines were cut and generators were torn to pieces.

But these four were huntresses. Armed with the supernatural power of aura, bound in their warrior hearts by their common duty and forged in the fires of their past, not even an overwhelming tide of evil could break their spirits.

Yang stood tall and proud, having now disentangled herself from Blake. Her golden mane shone in each flash of the flickering lights, alike her eyes that were radiating with purpose. Her hands were balled up and held at the ready. Legs were spread so that her center of gravity was low, muscles tensed for a dash forward at any moment.

Blake crouched on the balls of her feet. She held herself stable using her fingers, ready to pounce into action. Her cat-like eyes were squinting and scanned every inch of the surroundings, analysing enemies, escape routes and environmental dangers. Atop her head, her extra pair of ears pointed themselves in different directions than her normal ears to increase her range of hearing.

Weiss kneeled on the ground and breathed heavily. However, her head was still tilted so that she could keep an eye on the status of her foes and allies. Her slim legs were positioned so that she could stand up in an instant and her arms were poised elegantly. Even while tired she kept her posture and an air of sophistication.

Finally, there was Ruby, who stood protectively in front of her partner. She was too young, too small, too slim, but her will was strong, and so was her skill. It allowed her to wield a monstrously heavy scythe to decimate her enemies in swirls of red, all while wearing her childish "combat" skirt. Her aura wasn't too strong either, but through her eyes, one could see the sea of strength that was her soul.

The four of them, mere teenagers, stared down without even the slightest bit of fear towards the monsters that had surrounded them. For even with encroaching defeat, team RWBY showed no fear towards their sworn enemy. This was not Cinder, who was to eventually betray their trust in the worst way possible, or Adam, who would eventually pierce their spirits with one blow. This was the enemy they were prepared for since they were young, the evil that has existed since the dawn of humanity.

"What shall we do?" asked Yang, her voice steady. "There's too many and we don't have our weapons."

"I…" Weiss took another breath, "…might have a way. There was a Schnee once, one who could teleport. The," she paused, "…art has been lost over time, but, I think I know... how I might be able to reproduce it. I'll be able to get some of us out of here."

"Not all of us?"

"Let… let me try first. But I need time. If… if we hide in there, can you keep the door secure?"

Team RWBY looked at each other, but seeing no other way, they ducked inside the room. It was a supply closet full of replacement parts and other tools that adorned its walls, with lots of empty room in the middle. The whole room was about five by five meters.

Blake and Yang grabbed hammers and nails to reinforce the door. They could hear the monsters hurling themselves at the wall repeatedly.

Weiss took a few more moments of rest before she stood up and summoned two glyphs side by side. They were vertical and facing each other, one black and one white. Slowly, they began spinning faster and faster. Ruby stood by her, unsure of what to do and feeling somewhat useless.

Cracking sounds started to come from the wall and door, so the black and yellow duo moved carts of materials to block the door. It wouldn't help much, but it was all they could do.

After a while, the glyphs were spinning so fast it looked like they were spinning the opposite way. Still, nothing more was happening. Weiss was sweating hard, her eyes closed and muscles tensed in reflection of her mental flexing.

When she finally spoke up, she said what nobody wanted to hear. "I… I… can't. I can't make them… spin fast enough." It was through gritted teeth as she forced every little bit of her strength into the task.

There was a moment of silence.

Luckily, Ruby had an idea, even if she wasn't sure what was exactly happening. "Weiss, my semblance can move things around me too, think it'll work with that?"

"T… Try!"

She did, and burst into a stream of rose petals. The stream forced itself to move in a circle in the same directions as the glyphs. Unexpectedly, it worked. The glyphs started accelerating incredibly fast. To the rest of team RWBY, it looked like the space between the two floating, spinning, ethereal symbols was distorting.

"How…?" Stunned, Blake spoke out.

Then, a threshold was hit, and the distorted space burst open, creating a portal. Translucent distortions of space made up the frame, while through the middle, one could see… a desert?

"Arrrrghhhh…" Weiss grimaced. "Even with Ruby, I can only… power it… for one person before it destabilizes. Any… any more and it may sap too much of my aura."

"Is there some way we can help? Make it stronger?"

"Even if there is… we can't power it and… nrghhhh… go through it at the same time."

Blake and Yang looked at each other. Without even speaking, they communicated their mutual horror. The blond put a hand on Blake's shoulder.

"You go, kitty cat. I'm needed here. I'm the best at unarmed combat."

"No! You told me that I don't need to do everything by myself! That we're a team! I will stay here and make my stand with Ruby and Weiss!" Yellow eyes stared into purple. Both were resolute.

"Blake… I…" The door behind them cracked. "I… I'm sorry." And Yang grabbed and used her overpowering strength to throw her teammate straight into the portal.

Blake had one last glimpse at Yang's closed eyes and downcast expression, as if the blond was resigning herself to her fate, before Blake landed back-first into hot sand. She scrambled to her feet, reaching for the portal she came out of, but it closed with a snap.

In the middle of the desert, the cat girl stood, alone in the sand. She fell to her knees.

The world really wasn't fair.

 _(RWBY: Infinite Crisis)~_

Blake didn't know for how long she had sat there on her knees, staring at the sand. The sun didn't affect her, as aura protected against temperature changes too, a trait of aura that also explains aura-wielder's resistance to flames.

Her tears and screams gave away to solemn contemplation long ago. In her mind, her final moments with her team replayed again and again, each with a slight variation. She wanted to believe that there must have been a way to save everyone. Maybe if they weren't so rushed, maybe if they didn't rush for their weapons and separate from everyone… but they weren't given a choice, were they?

The ears atop her head, hidden beneath her bow, twitched. She looked at the sand dunes around herself. Nothing, just endless sand.

Her dual pair of ears could make out distant rumbling. It was slowly getting louder, closer.

The girl stood up and saw the two dust hammers that she and Yang had used had gone through the portal with her. She wrapped her fingers around the handles tightly and picked them up. Testing their weight, she did a practice swing, all while still scanning the horizon.

Finally, she saw it. There was a smoke trail in the distance, like the ones left by rockets. It was in the form of a downwards arc and was slowly being drawn by a falling object. Not really knowing what else to do, she headed for it. There was a chance it could help her back to civilization. And then, back to her friends.

The girl didn't even want to entertain the thought that they might be dead.

The object disappeared behind a sand dune. A loud bang, followed by what looked liked a rain of metal fragments told her that the object had landed. She was nearing it now, her aura enhanced speed allowing her to rip through the desert landscape.

Blake wasn't sure what she was expecting when she got to the top of the dune and in sight range, but it surely wasn't a man amidst all of the metallic debris. Seeing his unmoving body, she cautiously slid down the side of the dune to check on him and stepped silently towards him. Suddenly, he twitched, and the cat girl jumped backwards nimbly, hammers ready.

"Now that's a real end with a bang." The man moaned. He was covered in bruises, dirt and basically looked like he just went through a warzone. He threw off most of the pieces of metal attached to him except for a glowing round blue thing in the middle of his chest, before finally noticing Blake. "Oh. Hello there. You know where nearest payphone is?"

"Who are you?" The girl hissed.

"Isn't it polite to tell me your name first, hammer-girl?" He quipped. The man hurt everywhere and wasn't sure he could fight one on one with anyone in his state, but couldn't hold his mouth back.

"Blake." She replied, still wary. If the person didn't look like he was armed, it didn't mean he wasn't armed.

"Tony, then."

They stared at each other silently, one not wanting to make the first move and the other not sure as to what to say.

Finally, the man couldn't take it anymore. "So, you come here often?" He wanted to smack himself after the words came out.

Blake glared at him, the pain of what had just happened to her still fresh. A small part of her realized that, in a way, she did come here often, just not this exact situation. How many had she left behind, hurt and confused as to why she had done that to them? Even though this time it wasn't her fault, she had still left, and that realization made the pain all that much stronger. Instead of leaving behind confusion, she left behind a mountain of unsolved problems. Like why did so many people simply vanish? What caused it all?

She finally decided to just ignore his attempt at humor and jump straight to questions. "You know which direction to go to find a city?"

"No, sorry, I'm lost like you. I got kidnapped, built a robot suit and escaped… crazy Thursday, am I right?" He answered flippantly.

"Thanks anyways then." She turned to walk away.

"Woah! Let's not be hasty, we're alone in a desert. Trek together?"

Blake paused. She didn't want to work with a stranger and he wasn't even a local who could have given her information. Still, he seemed disheveled and just as lost as her. Ruby, Yang, and even Weiss would be aghast if she left him here.

The faunus sighed. "Alright." She waited for the man to scavenge some protective clothing off the wreckage to shield himself from the elements. Then, the two of them headed off in a random direction and hoped they were going the right way.

After a few hundred meters, Tony realized something.

"Hey, hammer-girl," the girl glanced at him to communicate that she was paying him attention, "I really want to ask about why you are wearing a school girl uniform in the middle of a desert, or maybe why you are armed with a pair of hammers, or even just why you are here… But, how the hell are you not sweating?"

He was right. The sun was beating down on the desert relentlessly. Heat made distant landscapes hazy. Not a living thing was in sight, except for the two of them.

The girl, on the other hand, had a completely unblemished school uniform. The sand that was blown up by the wind was seemingly repelled. Her skin still had the same pale, rosy complexion it had before, as if she was walking in the shade. Not a drop of sweat or sand.

Contrasting her, Tony already looked worse than before. The sand had seeped into every crack of his scavenged cloths. Sweat dripped down his skin, making his clothing stick to him. He looked like a desert hobo and felt even worse.

"I'm a huntress."

Tony waited for more. She didn't elaborate, instead, focusing on their surroundings.

The man felt like he was talking to a robot. "So, maybe I should hunt some rabbits too, if it makes me invincible to heat and sand. Or is it a rare drop from these rabbits? Should I buy a booster to increase drop rates?"

Blake was not in the mood for any jokes. "Are you playing dumb just to annoy me?" There was no way a man intelligent enough to build a flying suit of armor could not know about Huntsmen.

"So, not that kind of huntress." Tony nodded to himself. "Is it some special term? The name for a government super soldier project?"

The faunus glared at him, but before anything more could be said, her bow twitched. She whipped her head around to stare at something in front of them.

Far off in the distance in front of them, there was a lone flying object. Her top ears had heard the helicopter blades, not that she knew what a helicopter was.

Tony followed her gaze. "Could that be our rescue?"

The object got closer and the chopping sound got louder. About the time when Tony could finally recognize it as a helicopter, a tiny mysterious object dropped from each wing.

Blake's eyes widened. She pushed her companion behind her, ignored his yelp, and readied her hammers. Her aura covered her hammers to improve their durability.

She crouched. Her mind went into overdrive, calculating the distance between her and the projectiles. Then she burst into action. The two dots from the helicopter had come close enough to be revealed as missiles.

First, she flung herself forward, sending the sand behind her flying into the air. The faunus followed with a leap high into the air with catlike grace. Injecting the dust inside her hammers with aura, she made twin slashes towards the approaching projectiles.

Before the missiles could even get close, each swing of Blake's hammers had sent dust flying in a crescent shape straight into her targets. The dust, primed by aura, destroyed the missiles' tips. The projectiles' explosives were forced to go off early and the shrapnel did nothing against Blake's aura.

Tony was watching, shocked, his mouth slightly agape. "Holy shit-"

Blake used the missiles' scattered fragments still in the air as stepping stones to get even higher, straight into the path of the helicopter. She saw the pilot's shocked face as she smashed through the window beside him, hammers first. The man was lucky that it was a two-person helicopter, as it meant that Blake had enough room to enter the vehicle through the front window without having to land on him.

The co-pilot seat absorbed her entry through the glass by breaking in half. It slowed her down enough that she could lodge her hammers into nearby metal parts to halt her completely.

When she got back to the front of the helicopter and threatened the pilot to land with her hammers in hand, he didn't say one word in protest. He also smelled like he had just crapped himself.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

Salem, queen of the Grimm, felt nothing but satisfaction as she stared out of the window and at the Grimmlands. Her armies of dark monsters prowled in between crystals of purple Dust that stuck out haphazardly from the ashen ground. Above, a deep purple sky gave everything an ominous hue.

It was quite the powerful sight, but Salem had never cared much about her Grimm armies or her power. Her might was only a means to an end. Her goal? Her own destruction.

Long ago, the gods had punished a young, grieving widow with immortality when she had tried to defeat the natural order and revive her love. In despair, she tried to kill herself by diving into a pool of pure destruction.

However, it did not kill her. No, it did something far worse. She emerged from the pool, changed. From then on, the concept of destruction itself followed her wherever she walked. Her thoughts were infected and her soul was tainted by darkness. Worse of all, she did not know anymore which actions were hers and which were implanted. After all...

The young woman she once was would not have wanted to conquer the world. She would not have fought her lover over a small disagreement they could have talked over. And she also wouldn't have killed her own darling, sweet children in blind rage.

Living like this was not living. It was a strange state of undeath that embodied only suffering. A life without choice. A death without peace.

So was her punishment, for nobody could defy a god and get away with it.

But now… finally, after multiple millennia, she had a chance to be free. Her deathly pale hand pulsing with crimson veins lightly touched the cool window pane.

"The veil of time has been broken. The past and the future are mixing like they never should. But most importantly, the day of judgement has come!" And finally, she could die.

It was with a smile that she could feel her aura drain. A slow, but steady process, due to the size of her vast aura pool.

Suddenly, she felt a presence. A powerful one. The god of light perhaps, or the god of darkness? She looked in the direction the feeling came from, and paused.

"...Who are you?"

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

 **Old A/N: So, there's multiple things I have to say:**

 **There is a good reason for why there's an attack helicopter this time.**

 **Also, don't worry, this story includes more than just one RWBY character.**

 **About 'The Path Most Traveled', yes, there is a chapter coming this week.**

 **Deleted Parts:**

One learns how to live without money by having none. One learns to combat starvation by having no food. So, it should be asked, what kind of adversity necessitated schools to train the superpowered hunstmen? The answer was the Grimm.

In the world of Remnant, these creatures made from pure darkness prowled the lands. Armed with immense strength and a hide covered by bone plates strong enough to withstand most ranged weaponry, they are undeniably the true masters of Remnant. Every village lives in fear that one day they'll meet a Grimm they can not defeat, like the Nuckelavee, or even a dragon. Their fears are not unfounded, as even with the existence of hunstmen, countless human establishments have been destroyed and millions of lives lost.

There was no logic to the Grimm or their destruction. They were just animals. They can not be reasoned with, they can not be bribed, they can not be convinced. All they knew was their hunt of negativity, which the humans gave off quite a lot.

When Amity Colosseum crashed into Vale, thousands of civilians felt fear of their lives as they saw their doom slowly drift towards them. In return, thousands of Grimm in the surrounding forests lifted their heads up in interest. The monsters heard the call from their prey.

 _~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~_

Salem felt nothing but satisfaction as she stared out of the window and at the Grimmlands. Her armies of dark monsters prowled in between crystals of purple Dust that stuck out haphazardly from the ashen ground. Above, a deep purple sky gave everything an ominous hue.

It was quite the powerful sight, but Salem had never cared much about her Grimm armies or her power. Her might was only a means to an end. Her goal? Her own destruction.

Long ago, the gods had punished a young, grieving widow with immortality when she had tried to defeat the natural order and revive her love. In despair, she tried to kill herself by diving into a pool of pure destruction.

However, it did not kill her. No, it did something far worse. She emerged from the pool, changed. From then on, the concept of destruction itself followed her wherever she walked. Her thoughts were infected and her soul was tainted by darkness. Worse of all, she did not know anymore which actions were hers and which were implanted. After all...

The young woman she once was would not have wanted to conquer the world. She would not have fought her lover over a small disagreement they could have talked over. And she also wouldn't have killed her own darling, sweet children in blind rage.

Living like this was not living. It was a strange state of undeath that embodied only suffering. A life without choice. A death without peace.

Nobody, could defy a god, and get away with it.

But now… finally, after multiple millennia, she had a chance to be free. Her deathly pale hand pulsing with crimson veins lightly touched the cool window pane.

"The veil of time has been broken. The past and the future are mixing like they never should. Could this…" she whispered to herself. "Could this destroy the world… and kill me?"


	2. Chapter 2: More Strange Changes

**A/N: A million thanks to my new beta, The Path of a Writer! Please check out his works too!**

 __RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS__

"You just hijacked a flying helicopter with _a pair of hammers_! Was it that government agent guy, some director Furry, who made you? I know he was involved in super-soldier projects, but this? Say… do they make bunny girls like this too?" Tony quipped. His expression was controlled, almost neutral, but still expressive, as if he were a bored comedian.

Blake sighed as she sat beside him. _Bunny girl? …is that racist? Unlike Cardin, he seemed to have said it like a quip. I don't believe he intended for it to be racist, I think… Why does he have to be so confusing?_

During her initial attack on the helicopter, her attention had frayed when she hit the glass and her bow had peaked out of the protection of her aura before getting torn away. Her ears were revealed. Now her companion was never letting her hear the end of it. They were located behind the pilot seats, their backs to them and a wall in between, and still a small distance away from the helicopter's side doors. Tony poked his head around the corner to check that the pilot was going in a probably correct way.

"Did they snatch you from your mommy and pappy and then poke you with some needles? Or were there volunteers? Where do I sign up?" He said as he turned back to her.

The faunus' chin was pointed away from her exasperating companion. Her hands were daintily laid on her unruffled uniform. The genius, on the other hand, sat with straight posture just like her, but with a touch of his classic smugness. The wind blowing through the helicopter due to the large hole in the windshield helped keep everything chilly, so he wasn't as uncomfortable as he was before. He was back in the mood for his witty jokes. Or was he just always in that kind of mood? Still, she would need his help if she was ever going to escape the desert and rush back to help her team.

Tony nodded as if he had received an answer. "Of course, you are correct. Cute cat ears would not fit someone of my stature. Maybe a shark fin? Or special eyes, so I can have infrared vision. Can I have multiple traits? I should get a pair of large eagle wings, plus a shark fin so that I can tease those asian commies with my luxurious snacky back. …though now that I think about it, that might reveal me as a pool shark. Ah! I would rather like that other thing sharks have. Don't they have two pe– " He was interrupted by an aggravated Blake, who finally faced him with a glare. She knew exactly what he was talking about, she had read enough 'Tales of Predatorial Passion Under the Sea' to know.

It was almost insulting. The faunus had not suffered under human domination for so long only to turn into some kind of… of joke! Still, he could just be ignorant, after all, there were places in the world without faunus, and it really was not a big deal. "Sir, faunus are born faunus, not made."

Tony stared at her. "Look, if there was another race of humans with cat ears, we would have long heard abo – oh!" His eyes widened as he realized something. "Tell me quickly, does the phrase 'tin foil hat' mean anything to you?"

What? "No."

"Thank god! I was afraid that if cat people existed under the radar, then there would be snake people invading the American government too. At least the flat earthers are wrong. Right?"

She stared at him as if he was an alien.

"The Earth is flat!"

Blake had enough and turned away from him again.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I'm just curious, can't stop my scientific curiosity. Progress, humanity, and all that. You are too incredible and out of this world, supergirl."

That last sentence bothered her. A civilised human who had never seen a huntress is almost an impossibility. There was nowhere on Remnant without Grimm, and without huntresses, the Grimm would have slaughtered any nearby humans. Even the Atlas robots were ripped apart by the forces of darkness. Huntresses had to be there if humanity was to thrive.

He also made what was probably a lot of references to what she guessed was… unpopular literature? Blake read a lot and it was strange that she didn't get any of them, the jokes flying right by her ears. Maybe he was extremely well read and was arrogantly quoting rare classics to flaunt his intellectual superiority? It would fit his personality.

However, more things didn't add up. What was this helicopter? Atlas had shared its anti-gravitational dust propulsion technology with the world. Ancient technology like propellers never made it big. Even terrorist organisations like the White Fang did not use them as they were discontinued before they were even at the manufacturing stage, which was one of the reasons why Joan met and fell in love with Arty and joined in his gay relationship with Steve in 'Lusty Argonian Maid'. _Or was that 'A Rose in the Sky's Garden'?_ She tries to not think about that last one. Somehow, the sequel was better, for the first time in forever!

She cut off that train of thought. It was no time to think of smut – _I - I mean, classic, realistic literature_. Which was not smut, no matter what Yang said.

"What are you thinking about, Aristotle?"

Her ears twitched in irritation. "Sir – "

"My acquaintances call me Tony."

"…doesn't it go 'my friends call me…' – ugh. _Tony_ , how long has it been since you last checked if our pilot is going the right way?"

"About a second into your deep contemplation of the universe. There was a map and I learned navigation in the next minute." He held up the mentioned map. It wasn't in his hands before. "Your resident friendly neighborhood genius here. Anyways, it looks like your attack damaged some of the helicopter's systems, so I'll have to make some repairs. We'll be dropping in a nearby village. It's far enough from the border so that it should be safe and I may know a guy there. Hey, start a circus?"

"What?"

"Well, do you have any money on you?"

"…no."

"Unless you want to steal some tools and parts, we are going to have to work for them. With your cat ears and abilities and my business focused mind, I think a show would ma – woah, I don't like how you are shaking while fingering those hammers…"

He was kind of like a very brainy Yang, Blake realized. Unconsciously, the comparison brought her extra patience to deal with his antics. She sighed. "This is karma for joining the White Fang, isn't it."

They landed a few moments later in an open area. Within walking distance was a small settlement, nested in the side of a large dusty hill. Rock and dust made up most of the desolate landscape. The buildings were built partially into the rock face for good elevation, sun blockage, and most importantly, good drainage due to these biomes having fewer, but heavier downpours. The area was surrounded by hardy desert vegetation, like arid climate bushes. Unlike most desert stereotypes, this one had no cacti.

Blake searched the helicopter for equipment and found rope, rations, a small repair kit, and several toy guns. She also found a black piece of cloth, taking time to sit down and making it into a new bow to cover her ears.

"Catgirl priorities. Can't say I understand them."

She glanced at him before finishing her head accessory with a tightening pull. "How will we do this?" she inquired, ignoring his comment.

"I'm thinking we should just ask around. See if there is anybody with the parts we need. Oh, and see if we can get a pay phone, that would be very helpful. A cell phone would be great too. And since we are talking about consumer products, I would love a cheeseburger." He used some rags to make a makeshift sack. "A nice American cheeseburger. Other countries like the UAC just don't make the same authentic greasy burger. Those tree-huggers make healthy nutritious salad sandwiches, can you imagine that? Yuck."

Blake opened her mouth.

"As for Mr. Choplifter here, well, can't exactly bring him with us tied up like that to keep him from running away. We'll look like slavers. Who knows if the locals are alright with that. Instead, I'll take a few key items with us to prevent people from stealing the helicopter and you tie the pilot up. Then we'll go together. See? Great plan."

She closed her mouth. Not seeing any problems, she turned to do her task.

BANG.

Her head snapped to stare at Tony, who looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or more precisely, the adult engineer with his hand inside a suddenly busted electrical panel.

"Ah. Just some complete electrical burn out. No problem, good thing we landed, or we would be pancakes. Not tasty ones either, rather a few disgusting, body parts everywhere, red ones. Look, master engineer, no worries – "

POP. He yelped as a tiny electrical part exploded into sparks… right beside his crotch.

… _right…_

Blake wanted to curl up into a ball of fluff and hide, hoping it was all a bad dream. _And damn it, that was NOT a kitten comparison! Good thing Yang isn't here._ "Tony…"

"Don't you worry, kitty cat, I've built an arc reactor inside a cave and wrote the plans for a stealth fighter in the bathroom. I know how to weld together the whole left structure of a helicopter. Don't ask about the fighter though. Classified." He poked and prodded at a section of the frame surrounding the panel. "Wow, this would have fallen apart on us at any moment. Either you are a lot heavier than you look, so much that you generate your own sizeable gravitational field, and did more damage than what I had initially thought, or this helicopter has seen some heavy use."

Blake had no idea what to say. She just hoped she wasn't trusting the wrong guy with her escape from the desert.

The pilot shot her a fearful glance every once in a while. He was silent, possibly afraid to anger the goddess of war that he had unfortunately attacked. There was no struggle as she tied him to a metal beam. He looked down the whole time, meek, eyes wide, scared.

When she was finished, she turned to Tony, showing him the toy guns. "Do you know what these are?"

He took one look at them. "Ah yes, Stark Industries makes basically all of these. Rifles to bat and shoot some piñatas? We got them. Guns to shoot people? Yeah, the piñata guns can do that too. We are incredibly popular, especially with all this post-war drama. Every house owns one. I told my investors: don't you worry about the quarterly numbers, one day, weapons will be selected as the 'this common household object is alive' movie for Pixar and we'll make billions." He shrugged, seemingly relaxed, but Blake's keen eyes saw tension on his face. The man stared at the weapons longer than normal before meeting her eyes again. He was thinking about something.

"They aren't just models? Can you use them to defend yourself?"

"Hammer Girl, don't tell me you've never seen a gun before."

"These just look very… plastic. How strong are they?" She turned the gun so that it pointed at the empty area between her left index and middle finger. It was something a lot of huntsmen did. Due to the power of aura, one dust round did little. Pointing it at the space between her fingers allowed the bullet to still hit her aura and miss her actual body if it were to somehow penetrate her defense.

Tony's eyes widened. "Woaah there – "

She flipped the safety with practiced ease, pulled the trigger, and instantly regretted it. It wasn't any kind of physical wound on her hands, however, that made her regret it. The problem was the sound. The loud gunshot was further augmented by the small space inside the helicopter, stunning Blake. Her bow flattened against her hair while her hands sprung up to cover her sensitive human ears. She stumbled. The rifle dropped from her hands.

"…! …!" Whatever he said as he rushed over, Blake couldn't hear. Luckily for her, actual permanent damage was limited by her aura. Her hearing returned quickly.

He inspected her woundless hands. "…ke! Blake, can you hear me?"

"Argh… yes. I'm ok! I'm ok." Recovered, she nudged him out of her personal space. "But who makes guns like… like that?!"

Deducing that she was talking about the sound from her reaction and her lack of wounds, he answered with another question. "Do you catgirls only use guns with silencers or something? And have Man of Steel genes in youtoo?" He sounded nonchalant, but his eyes clearly said, 'are you crazy?'

"…No, but are your guns all this loud and with no power?"

As a weapon manufacturer who recognized his own products, Tony was mildly insulted. At least he was, until he saw the bullet the school girl held up. She had caught the bullet with her aura.

The pilot gaped. Tony stared. His normally quick mouth was frozen. A second passed.

"Holy. Shit."

Meanwhile, Blake was contemplating exactly how powerful Weiss' semblance was. This place she found herself in was so strange, so different. They used rotary blades, had what were most likely gunpowder weapons from what she could tell from the smell, and possibly no aura. If one of Weiss' ancestors could warp space, who is to say that there was not a chance to warp the space between dimensions? Or universes? If she really had been warped across realities, then an even bigger question nagged at her. _How will I ever get back?_

The technological genius seemed amazed. None of it showed in his expression, but his eyes focused intensely on her. "You caught. A bullet. Superman style. Or Matrix style. I don't care. What matters is, how can I learn to do this?"

If she ever wanted to get back, she'd need help. Her semblance only involved the creation of clones. Reality warping… now that was something she'd need others for. She'd need allies. This man here was sort of indebted to her. She saved his life from the 'helicopter' vehicle, so he should be honor bound to help her back. Right?

"Well… its hard to explain."

"Don't worry, I have Masters in electrical engineering and physics while being internationally renowned for my innovations and also dabbling heavily in robotics and cybernetics… since recently. As a hobby. Yes, yes, incredibly impressive. A lot of people would call me the Leonardo Da Vinci of our time. I disagree, I don't appreciate naked men."

Blake took his reply as the sign to start explaining as the reference went right over the faunus' head. Having seen that she was alright and his questions about to be answered, he returned to his inspection and removal of helicopter parts. Her cat ears flattened against her hair. "Well, I used aura." She flared up the force field around her body and clothing into the visible spectrum. It glowed a light purple, like one of those shielding systems ever so common in futuristic video games. "Aura… is the manifestation of the soul. A gift given by – "

"Woah, woah, woah!" Tony turned towards her and raised his arms, motioning for her to stop. "Are you about to talk to me about," He stretched his mouth so that it was wide and sarcastic, then tilted his head to look at her through his eyelashes, "our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" His expression loosened to deadpan, "If so, then I think Pepper, and by extension, me, has heard it enough from those Jehovah Witnesses…"

 _A very incomprehensible, impatie – er, distastefully impatient, Yang_ , Blake moaned internally. "Tony, do you want answers or not?"

"Of course, but if you start trying to convert me to Scientology, you'll have to pay me." He gave a quick grin before he turned to his work again.

The cat-faunus sighed. "Like I said a few minutes before you interrupted me, aura is the manifestation of the soul. It is our desires given form, changing the very reality around us. Primarily, this results in enhanced durability, strength, and speed."

"And all cat girls can do this? Meine Führer, cat girls… they are the real master race. Honestly, I wouldn't be against that, if the bunny girl population stays the same. Or improves." There was a release of steam as he removed a hydraulic component from the wall. He threw it into his bag.

…' _master race'? Is that a reference to the Human Purity Movement? Or is it something else from his world?_ "All humans and faunus can do this. The real problem is finding compatible unlocked souls whose aura can resonate and bring out your own. Moments of extreme stress can also unlock it too, but normally, the person will die before he or she can learn how to use aura."

"You are really pulling my leg here. How come nobody has heard of superhumans like this? Its that Furry guy, isn't it. I knew his name had to be an indication of his preferences."

"No, the answer is much… stranger." She was thinking hard, looking for words to explain to him her situation. It didn't help at all that her companion was distracting her.

"What, did you pop out of a fictional show?"

If she could die from exasperation, Blake would have died nine times over. "Please be serious for one second, Sir – Tony."

"Alright, alright. I'll give you some time. My secretary says my time is worth a lot of money though, you sure you can afford it?"

"Tony, I'm serious. I… I think I might have crossed dimensions."

"You look 3D to me."

"…" _For the love of all Faunus! Seriously?! That's it, time to pull out the sass!_

"Well, where ever you came from, Cat-Eyed Joe, we first have to get back to civilisation before I can help you. Don't worry, I'll pay you back, unlike those Nigerian princes."

"You sound pretty confident that you can help me." If there was one thing the faunus had learned from her time as a terrorist, it was to be as cautious as possible. All her assumptions about her situation were just that, assumptions. She had no idea where she was or who this man could be. For all she knows, they could be in a remote corner of the world where there was no Grimm. Nobody knew how the Grimm worked after all, so that could be true. Maybe she didn't cross universes?

Tony could be lying to her, about the robot suit, about not knowing what a huntress was, not that she could think of any reason for him to do so. There was just so much she didn't know about where she was. She had to learn more.

"I'm Tony Stark." His bored, confident smile disappeared when his companion replied to him in her usual calm voice, not recognizing him at all.

"Blake Belladonna."

"…I'm going to guess you are not a Shield agent and that you live under a rock. Or maybe it's the dust and grime on my face." He wiped some dirt off his face. "Tah-dah, owner of Stark Industries and super genius, at your service."

"Stark Industries?" Why did that remind her of the Schnee Dust Company?

"We are the largest weapon manufacturer in the world. Makers of those weapons." He motioned towards the guns on the ground.

The SDC had left Blake with a bad impression of large international businesses. "That's… interesting." She forced out. Blake hoped it wasn't anything like it.

"Ok, kitty cat, you've convinced me. Other world, got it. Sheesh, you are about as good of an audience as my workers."

"I can't imagine working with a boss as outrageously amazing like you." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

Tony lightly smirked. "Why, Ms. Teenager, I am honored." He placed a hand on his chest and acted bashful at the 'praise'. "You must have a lot of bosses to compare me to."

"Well, I did have one and he almost killed hundreds of innocents – " Blake lightly gasped and covered her mouth. While it wasn't a dangerous secret, it still was info she would rather keep to herself. "It was a bad day. And I was the one who stopped him." She added. _Stupid Blake!_ The ex-terrorist thought that her own reveal as ex-White Fang to her team would have been an important enough lesson in relation to her loose mouth. On the other hand, the point of a faunus right terrorist is being heard… _Don't give yourself excuses._

He was just so witty that she just wanted to render him speechless. Joke's on her, she played herself.

Tony didn't react, or at least, visibly. "The exciting life of Catgirl and Bossman. Sounds like a long story. Nice chat, back to work now." He grabbed a clipboard that hung from the wall and flipped the checklist so that he had blank pages to work with. Using the pen that was attached to the clipboard by string, he wrote the list of items he needed.

Blake watched on, uneasy. There was no way he was going to ignore the fact that she revealed that she almost killed people.

He finished his list, nodded as if coming to a conclusion, and looked outside the window. Then, he nonchalantly asked Blake, "Ready, Hammer Girl?" Accepting her silent nod as a response, he grabbed a pistol for self defense and hid it in his clothes as he then casually strolled out of the helicopter.

Wary, she grabbed her hammers and followed him.

 __RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS__

The faunus walked behind Tony who was leading the way. A piece of cloth was wrapped around the lower half of his face to attempt to hide his identity.

He hadn't said one word since their conversation in the helicopter. He was focused on Blake's claim that she was from a different world. Even his quick mind required some time to process what should be an impossible event. To his surprise, however, he was starting to believe the catgirl.

The powers she had were incredible. True, Captain America and the Hulk had incredible durability. But, did they have what could be either a force field or incredible speed allowing her to catch a bullet? And what about just making physics not work? There was no way anybody, not even Superman, could time his jump just right to shoot energy beams at tiny distant rockets traveling at about 500 mph, land on the debris of the missiles, and propel himself straight into the windshield of a moving helicopter. The sheer amount of finesse it required was insane… unless she was cheating with flight powers.

Then there was her attire and choice of weaponry. A school girl uniform in the desert is like wearing soccer gear at a formal meeting. The only explanation for that would be if she wasn't expecting herself to be in a desert.

And dual hammers? Even if they were magical energy blade shooting ones, why would they be in the shape of hammers? Blunt trauma was only effective against tough armor, like plate armor in medieval times. Convenience? _Hm, it would look good, and unexpected for your enemies… Looking good and shooting good._ The image of a stylish man in a tux and bowl hat came to his mind. _Maybe I should create a new product line, exquisite canes with hidden rifles?_

He tossed away that idea quickly. _Your actions have consequences, Tony. Remember that._ It was easy to make weapons when you are sitting in your penthouse, siping Château Cheval Blanc, far away from the death and destruction that became known to him as mere numbers on a quarterly report card.

Done with this tangent, his mind instantly snapped back to his original train of thought.

Additionally, cat ears. He thought they were fake at first, but they twitched, and moved, and straightened in response to her mood. Depending on how he talked, they would go through different actions to represent what she felt. It was exciting, it was insane, it was incredible. Very incredible. Most importantly, it was something incredibly dumb to fake, or to make. What use is there to fake cat ears? What uses are there _for_ cat ears? _Other than looking cute, of course. Which is, if I'm being honest here, probably another of her catgirl priorities._

Tony did not miss the fact that she was wearing eyeliner, and it somehow wasn't smudged at all. It was these features that added much needed legitimacy to her story, enough that Tony was willing to accept that maybe she wasn't from around here. But she could be an alien. From space. With butt probing and all tha -

His face twisted. _Alright, bad move, thought. In the garbage bin you go._ He mentally gagged.

Ignoring accidental stray-thought pedophillism, there was so much in terms of science he could learn from her. If he could work out how her powers, well, worked, maybe he could incorporate them into, say, a new suit! A dress shirt… that auto-cools. Bullet proof and wrinkle proof suit jackets that repelled dirt! Think of the possibilities! Oh yeah, and maybe a cool new power armor. But exquisitely comfortable suits are also important. Obi - well, he won't be happy he wasted so much of the company's money, but he would be thankful inside. Very deeply inside.

It also didn't just have to be suits of cloth or armor. He had seen how Blake's feet didn't sink in the sand at all. If that technology could be applied to even more fluid substances like air, levitation would be possible, revolutionizing transportation. These weren't just super powers. These were applications of technology that could change the world. _Remember what Obi told you. Life is opportunity!_

Still, it wasn't as if he wasn't aware of just how harmful her powers could be. She could probably crush his skull through an accidental smack from her hand, or destroy buildings with a punch. Nevertheless, Tony was not scared of Blake at all. She looked to be in her later teenage years and her behavior displayed a combination of both experience in combat and naivety in terms of everything else. Through her previous actions in shielding him, he could tell that she had a good heart underneath all that quiet teenage angst. He could trust that she wouldn't betray him. _Everything else, like getting back home before curfew, not running away from home, and knowing that dark edgy boyfriends are bad? Ha! Forget it._

 _...why does it feel like I hit the nail on the head?_

So what? Her boss tried to kill some people? It's not like Tony himself wasn't indirectly massacrying millions. It was the heart that counted… right? Blake made herself to be a good teenage mutant cat girl, and weapon making was pretty much all that Tony knew. Some people just can't choose the paths they take.

On that note, weapons... Tony had been conflicted about his company ever since his time in the terrorist cave. Oh, it wasn't because he got blown up by his own explosives. That was ironic, but it didn't really change his world view. Was he supposed to stop all weapon production just because he finally understood what shrapnel entering his body felt like? No!

Shrapnel entering your body was painful, by the way. Very painful. Not everyone had this 'aura' to bullshit their way through explosions without getting hurt. On that note, water proof, heat proof, mascara-smudge proof, AND bullet proof? Complete BS.

 _Anyways, back on topic. Weapons._ The reason he was conflicted was Yinsen. In the cave in which he was imprisoned, there was another man, a fellow engineer and physicist by the name of Ho Yinsen. He was intelligent, though not as smart as yours truly, but he was innovative in his own strict way.

It was he who saved Tony's life by implanting an electromagnet inside of his chest, keeping the metal shards deep inside his body from piercing his heart. While he had to do it, for he was forced to, he didn't have to plot with Tony behind all the terrorists' backs. He didn't have to help Tony create a miniature arc reactor that will power a prototype iron man suit. He didn't have to lie to the terrorists, playing them like idiots. He didn't have to risk his life for Tony.

Yinsen had a son and a wife, both who he had talked about as if they were his world. To 'convince' the man to help them, the terrorists promised he would be released and reunited with his family. A normal man would have followed the terrorists for even the slightest chance of escape. But Yinsen… Yinsen was a good man. He saw a man in need and threw all that away. The man saw wrong in the world and sought to correct it. For that, he will always have the american's thanks.

Tony had thought that these kinds of men were fools, as his father and Obi had taught him. Kind men like him sacrificed all they had for strangers without even knowing if they would repay them. Kindness was weakness, and undeserving greedy corporations loved to prey on weakness.

The lesson was easy to understand for Tony at first. But he never thought that Stark Industries, the legacy that his father created with sweat and blood, would be one of those undeserving greedy corporations.

A good comparison would be a drug dealer. First, drugs are sold. People get hooked. More drugs get sold. Prices grow as demand gets higher, but all your victi - customers can not live without your product because they are addicted. Your products become a lifeline, a lifeline that drains their health and sanity at just a low enough rate for you to profit maximally.

Just like drugs, violence spreads and breeds insidiously in the hearts of men. Say a group is angry. Arm them. They start a war. To defend themselves, their enemy must also arm themselves. The war grows bigger. International relations get in the way. War spreads. Hatred for that group for stepping in. Hatred for that group for not stepping in. Sides are chosen. Weapons are distributed, and through the bloodshed of others, profits are made.

Tony wasn't naive. He knew that it was the natural state of things. If it wasn't Stark Industries, it would have been another company. As long as humans exist, there will be conflict, and someone who would profit from it. However, for the first time ever, he was questioning it. Good men like Yinsen died in this chaos, used and discarded like trash. _Could I stand to continue this cycle of destruction? Could I stand to have a hand in the millions of deaths?_

Tony was pulled from his contemplation when he heard his name being called. He looked around. They were inside the cliff-side town, walking on the main street at ground level. Only about a minute had passed since his exit of the helicopter due to the sheer speed of his thoughts.

He turned around to face the person who called his name, but something bugged him.

"Blake, when did your voice get so dee - oh. Yinsen!"

 __RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS__

His silence had been scary to Blake. What did he think of her now? A thousand guesses at his internal thoughts had eaten at the faunus as she walked behind him.

When she heard a man approach from behind, her hands had gripped her weapons in a better combat-ready way. She wasn't sure of his allegiances.

She didn't turn around until the stranger called out her companion's name. He looked Vacuan, but wore strange white cloths that covered all his exposed skin and hair. The tension seeped out of her body when Tony recognized him. The two men looked like old friends, greeting each other and commenting on each other's well being. Blake felt a bit left out, but wasn't about to disrupt their reunion.

"Ah, you were correct. The hydraulic fluid compensator parts C-16 thru C-18 were supposed to be flipped. I flew the wrong way, that's why it took me so long to get here. The Tony Airlines may get sued by a single very ticked off passenger in a few days. How'd the drone work out?"

"Splendid, Stark. I did not expect you to be this good at robotics. None of them would have expected the missile to transform into a drone and take off, and then take down so many of their men. I also did not expect you to pick up on the uses of old outdated Cold War UAC actuators so fast. You make wonders, Stark. My deepest gratitudes for that, by the way. I would have surely died without it."

"Thank you. I am pretty good. You know me, dedicated, stubborn, got to get an in-depth knowledge of every field I study. That's why they call me the Merchant of Depth."

The man named Yinsen laughed. Tony smirked.

"So, who is this young woman?" Yinsen eyed her hammers and clothing with slight confusion.

"Blake," she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Blake."

She opened her mouth to correct him, but Tony spoke faster.

"I met her on the way here. She's lost, a bit like me." Tony looked around. "We should talk more in your house."

Yinsen got the hint. He motioned for them to follow him.

Something caught Blake's eye. She looked at a large part of the cliff face that was above the current part of the town they were in and had no buildings utop it. On its surface, ever so little, she could make out…

 _Is that Yang's emblem?_

"Blake? What, did you find some catnip?" Tony called out from further away. They were about to go around a corner and head up some stairs to the houses above them, on the side of the hill.

She didn't even spare him a glance, such was her surprise. _No way..._ The marking was huge and possibly chiseled into the rock, but faded enough that it could just be something else. _Just a coincidence, Blake._

She ran after her companions.

 __RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS__

 **A/N: Yinsen?! YANG?!**

 **What could have made all these changes?**

* * *

 **Review Responses**

 **Guest**

Is Salem Gone please be gone.

 **Hm. Is she or is she not, that is the question.**

 **TH3CRAZYM0D**

She travelled in time!?

That would make some weird time paradox here…

 **That is the question, isn't it. Does her actions in the past affect the future? Does her actions in the past destroy HER future? How does time travel work in this fic? All questions to be answered in future chapters.**

 **Daughter of Ironman06**

Wait, Blake is in Ironman? So I'm guessing Weiss and Ruby (and possibly Yang) might be featured in different MCU movies, is my prediction.

 **Pretty much. You want a cookie? Tough luck, Ruby ate them all.**


	3. Chapter 3: Physics and Dramatics

**A/N (December 5th, 2018): NEW ENDING SCENE**

 **Old A/N:** **...why is there another fic using my fic's name? And uses a similar summary? WTF man! I know technically he's not breaking any rules… still annoying though.**

 **Beta: The Path of a Writer & Rune**

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

Blake wasn't pouting.

She was not.

"Please, Blake, if you want to not act like a disgruntled child, you will need to try harder."

No, she was not pouting, and nothing could change that absolutely true fact, not even Tony's stupid comments.

"I can't believe it! A cat girl?!" The elderly woman exclaimed happily as she gently scratched Blake's ears from behind the poor girl. She had the features of a south Mistralian, like Yinsen.

Blake uncomfortably shuffled in her seat, the plate of dry desert food in front of her untouched.

The four of them were sitting at the four corners of an small old wooden table. Tony was on her right and Yinsen was across from her. Or at least, they were sitting, until the annoying woman decided to be annoying.

The place itself was more like an apartment in both size and feel. Only about an Ursa Major Grimm and a half in size, the dining room also doubling as a living room. Small trinkets littered every one of the numerous slanted shelves. In reality, it was the floor that was slanted in order to increase drainability.

"Stop talking, Tony." She sighed. Her left hand held her ribbon and she was just itching to put it back on and stop this indignation.

"Now, that's not nice. Didn't catmom at least teach you to say please?"

Blake's ears twitched in irritation, much to the delight of her tormentors.

Yinsen gave a low, short chuckle. "There, there, my dear wife, give the girl some peace. It must have been a harrowing day for her."

"Sorry, my dear," The woman apologized to the girl, though the apology was diminished when she took another few seconds to squeeze in a last few rubs. "Couldn't help myself. So cute!" Blake had learned the elderly woman went by the name of Sajiao. She had greying hair like Yinsen that ended at her shoulders, but walked about with much more energy than anybody her age should have. A counterbalance to Yinsen's almost monk-like peace, Blake guessed. Kind of like Ren and Nora, just less insane.

"Now that we are watered and well fed, we should get to the important matters. Stark, you said that you have a helicopter?"

"Of course, with my ingenious mind and Ms. Teenage Warhead's expert missile hopping, we liberated the Al Faath of their excess equipment." Tony took another swig of water. "Very good job, by the way, hammer girl."

"Ingenious mind? You didn't do anything..."

"Moral support. Very important and very busy job, girl."

Sajiao gave a giggle at that.

"Missile hopping?" Yinsen intently questioned.

"Yeah, we've got ourselves quite the super girl here. She does some soul hijinks and bam! Her makeup becomes smudge proof."

That… was not a good description of aura.

Tony went on. "She also comes from a different universe! How crazy is that!"

Blake groaned in her suffering. "I miss Yang…"

 _~RWBY Infinity Crisis~_

The portal had closed, leaving Yang alone in the room with her remaining teammates. Weiss fell to her knees, graceful even when exhausted. Ruby reformed between them.

"Weiss, you ok?"

"Does…" The white haired girl took a breath, "it look like…" and another "...I'm ok, you dolt?"

"Ehhh…nooo?"

A dark, monstrous paw tore through the wall, reminding the three girls of their situation. Then it retracted. The Grimms' howls seemed to grow louder now that the wall was breached.

Yang readied her hammers. Ruby grabbed a broom and stood protectively in front of Weiss. They weren't going down without a fight.

When the next Grimm limb punctured the wall in a different section, Yang was ready. She launched herself and smashed both hammers into the arm. The Dust inside her weapons ignited, tripling the force of her blow. It ripped the arm straight off. One of the Grimm roared in pain.

There was a few moments of calm before, instead of going one by one, the Grimm attacked at once. The whole wall came down in an instant, giving Yang not a moment to react. Being so close, the attacking five Ursa Majors looked like a wall of black flesh and claws. They bulldozed into Yang and sent her flying into the wall beside Ruby and Weiss. Luckily, the Grimm were too many and got stuck in their new expanded doorway.

"Yang!"

Half of Yang's aura was gone, but that was good, as it fed her semblance. The blond girl shook off the plaster. She yelled back at the monsters. "You want some?! Come get some!" She twirled her hammers, reloading their blast chambers with Dust from internal reserves. Her hair burst into flames. "You better get ready to die!" With that, she charged into the fray.

The advantage of fighting in the enclosed space of the closet was that it was very hard to get flanked. It was much too small and forced two on one fights. That, she could deal with, easily in fact.

The Grimm attacked with paw swipes and she parried both. She flipped her hammers to catch the Grimm flesh in the hammer's claws and pulled backwards, forcing the Ursas to overextend. As they stumbled, she launched a barrage of devastating hammer attacks, shattering one's skull plate. The other went in for a cheap shot while she was occupied, but Yang used her momentum to send her foot flying into its face. The Grimm flew backwards into its brethren.

Caught in the moment, she chased after it by jumping in the air as if she was going to smash the ground with a gravity hammer. "Die!" She primed her Dust. The Ursa was not able get away before she landed, hammer first.

The target Grimm splattered like an orange crushed underneath an anvil and the earth shook. Following her blow, a shockwave blasted the last three Ursas away, giving her team much needed breathing room.

"Clear enough! Let's go, princesses!" Yang called back.

"Ok!"

"Eh-Eh-EH! Ruby, let me go!"

"This way!" In a burst of speed, the youngest huntress of the team grabbed her teammates and flew down the only corridor that was open in a stream of rose petals. If they could get outside, they might be able to regroup at the designated emergency meetup area, like what they did during fire drills.

Unlike Weiss, Ruby's ability was much worse at team utility. She didn't get far before she was too tired. The three of them re-appeared in a different place, closer to their goal, but not close enough. Ruby unceremoniously dropped both teammates onto the floor. Yang landed on her knees. Weiss landed on her face.

"Ruby! Ow!"

"Oh no, looks like we have some spilled Weiss-cream on the floor!"

The heiress glanced at the elder sister. "Is this really a time for jokes?" She asked as she wiped plaster off her face and clothing as she attempted to get back up, but fell back down. Weiss was too exhausted. Ruby laid down beside her, in the same state.

Yang easily stood up "It's the best time! You know, imminent doom, can't do much if we are depressed, ah?"

"Well, instead, how about you-behind you! Manticore!"

Yang sidestepped a ball of blue fire. "Here?!" She yelped as the projectile exploded just a bit too close. "The deaths really had attracted Grimm from all over!"

The Manticore was perched on the ceiling, blocking their way out. It roared.

"Oh, yeah?! Well, you don't scare me!" Yang tossed her hair back dramatically and reloaded the Dust in her hammers.

They watched as one more Manticore came out from behind the first. And another. And another. And another, until there were ten.

Yang paled. "Uh… want to talk this out?"

Their answer was to each charge up a fireball and fire it.

The blond girl saw the fire coming and was about to jump away, until she realized something very important, Weiss and Ruby were behind her and they were dead tired. Would they be able to move away?

Yang's heart skipped a beat and all her previous mirth disappeared.

She wasn't fast like Ruby or Weiss. She couldn't grab her teammates and run. What could she do? She solved her problems with her fists, but you couldn't punch fire away.

The fireballs were quick and were almost upon her. They looked like an inferno of blue, ready to wipe her straight from the earth. She had a split-second to make a decision.

Her sister and the ice princess, or her.

The choice was obvious. She was the tank of the team and she'd do her job. Yang braced herself, putting her arms in front of her. _Ooooh, this is gonna hurt!_

"Yang!" the two behind her cried.

She squeezed her eyes shut. The air around her got warm.

It was hotter now.

Even hotter.

Hotter…?

...no, actually, it was still just warm. What?

Yang put her arms down to reveal the fireball floating a meter away from her. She stared at it incomprehensibly. "Did I just stop time?" she said dumbly.

"No, it just looked like you needed some help."

All three team RWBY members turned to their left. A tall black haired woman in Haven Academy uniform casually walked in the room, her hand outstretched. She closed her fist and the fireball in front of Yang imploded into nothing.

Cinder had arrived.

 _~RWBY Infinity Crisis~_

Yinsen and Sajiao were surprisingly receptive of the whole 'from a different universe' thing.

Yinsen, after seeing the power of her aura by having her crush some rocks with her bare hands, could not find any other explanation for her strange glowing force field and listened closely to her explanation of aura. Afterwards, he asked if he could run a few experiments to determine the qualities of this 'aura' so politely that Blake couldn't help but accept. Blake wished secretly that she had met this reasonable man instead of Tony.

His wife, on the other hand… Blake had mixed feelings. On one hand…

"My dear, is it rude to ask a… 'faunus' if they can purr or not?"

Blake stared at the woman unblinkingly.

On the other hand, the woman had books. Lots of books. Blake looked at all the books around her in the small room she and the woman were in. It turns out they had made one of their two tiny bedrooms into a small library. Contrary to popular belief and Yang's suggestions, Blake did not just read porn - er - realistic, that's the word, stories. She liked many different genres, from non-fiction to biographies.

Ignoring the woman's question entirely, Blake replied with her own more pressing question. "Shouldn't we be outside looking for parts? I would like to begin figuring out how to go back to my old dimension. I fear for the safety of my friends." And wasn't that a strong fear. Now that she personally was safe, she could only think of Yang's resigned face. Was Ruby ok? Was Weiss ok? As much as she disliked Schnees, she would admit to feeling some worry for the lithe SDC heiress.

The woman giggled at the deflection, but still answered. "Unlike you, Mr. Stark is not impervious to the elements. Desert living is hard living. He'll need some different clothes before you and my husband can venture out again." Blake, in order to blend in better, had switched only superficially to the plain cloths that the locals seemed to favor. She still wore her uniform on the inside. However, she did switch her footwear to a pair of faded brown desert boots. "In addition… I believe they are doing more tinkering. It may take a while. Why don't we relax for a little bit? You look high-strung, my dear."

 _Because of you_. Blake wasn't about to voice that, though. Still, she was right. Instead of worrying about what ifs, she should familiarize herself with this new world. The faunus looked at the rows and rows of books around her. A treasure trove, that's what this was. "May I inspect your books, Ms. Sajiao?"

"Of course! Ask me if you want to know more about how it's all organized." The woman offered.

Blake heard Yinsen call out for his wife.

"Ah! I better see if he needs help." She said before she left.

Perfect! Now she can delve into her books in peace.

In hindsight, it was a happy coincidence that this land's language was so similar to Remnant's. It would have been quite the struggle to communicate to Tony if she didn't understand anything at all. And imagine that, no books to read? It would have been a nightmare. A worse nightmare, that is.

She inspected a bookcase that was labelled 'adventure books'. To her surprise, she couldn't understand the writing on half the books. They were written in some kind of strange cypher. Why would anybody code so many books?

Blake took one out and looked at its cover. Small amounts of sand was in its crevices, but it looked new enough, so Blake ruled it out as an antique. It pictured some kind of sorcerer and a red stone.

"Interested in Harry Potter, I see? Though, I am surprised that you also learned Dari in your old world."

The faunus looked up from her book to see Sajiao standing at the doorway. "Dari? No, I don't understand this at all. Is this some kind of code?" Blake stared at the woman as she laughed. "What?"

"Some kind of code!" Sajiao had covered her mouth in mirth. "It's just another contemporary language, often used in Afghanistan."

"There's two commonly learned languages in this world?" asked Blake, surprised. Remnant only had one.

"T-Two? My dear, there are hundreds of languages commonly spoken around the world!"

Blake would have gaped if it was her thing to do so. "So many? How do people communicate?"

"Translators, mostly. Many people learn multiple tongues."

"Sounds quite impractical." Remnant already had the Grimm and the animosity between the Faunus and Humans. They didn't need any more problems.

"Well, there are only two very popular languages, Union English and Russian."

That was interesting. It sounded a lot like 'Stars That Make Us', a series about a human noble and his faunus assassin attempting to solve the rifts between two kingdoms heavily divided by bad blood. So much that one of the kingdoms had rejected everything of the other and adopted its own tongue. It was interesting to read how people communicated without even saying a word. "Dominating kingdoms?"

"Countries. And dominating would be quite the right word." The elderly woman gently ghosted over some books on one shelf until she found the correct one. "Here, look. This is the most updated map of the world I have right now." She flipped to a page and showed it to Blake.

The map was colored and names of places were marked, just like an average one. The oceans were uncolored while the rest of the world was divided between a rainbow of colors. Four especially large sections stood out.

The woman pointed at one. This one is the largest, encompassing most of the biggest landmass. "This is Russia. At the moment, it is the strongest of the big three. They are a neo-liberalist-socialist state and are the ones who speak Russian, as you can guess by the name."

Blake nodded along. Fascinating. "Neo-liberalist-socialist?"

"Basically, they are a bunch of lazy asses." The faunus looked up to see Tony casually leaning against the doorframe while Yinsen stood beside him. He had changed into a set of extremely plain, lightly colored clothing and also had a long strip of cloth that was used as a hood. Another piece was wrapped around his neck, in case he needed to hide his face.

"Now that is a terrible oversimplification." Admonished Sajiao. "However, seeing as we're reading to go…"

Blake stopped her from closing the book. "No, no, please continue. Could you just finish talking about the three powers?" World building was very important, after all.

Sajiao raised a fine, white eyebrow.

Tony adjusted the piece of white cloth around his neck. "That's alright, we can wait till storytime is over. Please, continue?"

"If you are all certain…" The wife pointed at another land mass. "The United African Conglomerates. They are quite separated from the world, but they are well known as both the most technologically advanced and also the least, paradoxical as it is. It is rumoured that it is the origin of the technological explosion forty years ago."

"Love those guys. Worst sandwiches ever, but if you want trees to be hugged, well, you got the people." commented Tony.

"He means that they are one of the world leaders in terms of human rights. In fact, most of their efforts are focused inwards in order to increase their standards of living. Pacifists in general."

"Horrible, horrible sandwiches!"

Yinsen shook his head. "You of all people are complaining about food, Tony?" The other genius shot him an annoyed look.

Sajiao sighed. "And finally, the North American Union." This country covered the entirety of the continent it was on, all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

Tony clapped his hands. "Let me introduce the best nation!" He interjected. Then, the genius paused. "Well, I'm not actually that patriotic. Let me introduce to you the most average nation. If you want to find the hardest, most innovative and successful workers, America is where to go!" He tapped his cheek, faking a moment of thought. "Yeah, that's about it in terms of good things."

Sajiao translated for Tony. "What he means is that the NAU are the most controversial of the bunch. Some would even say that their continued existence is an affront to the dignity of everyone on earth. Not that those same complaining people are doing anything about it."

Tony looked insulted. "Hey! We're not that bad. At least we get things done, unlike those damn commies."

"As expected of you." Yinsen shook his head sadly. "Anyways, we should probably move on." He left out the door.

Tony hurriedly went after him. "Woah! You know that's not what I meant! I just mean that, technically, we do get things done, not that…"

Blake narrowed her eyes. She didn't like that one bit, but followed them out of the room without another word.

It was quite the strange village. Looking away from the steep constructions built from the side of the huge hill, it almost felt like she was going to fall off. Everything was built vertically from earth and into the cliff face in order to take advantage of the natural terrain. Stairs were common place and in the distance, Blake could make out some kind of rope and pulley elevator made of wood. The wood probably was imported, as there were no trees as far the eye could see.

Blake, Yinsen, and Tony walked on one of the many unfenced, hardened earth walkways sticking out from the side of and winding around the hill. Blake had her bow back on. Sajiao decided to stay behind and do some housework.

"We are going to visit the village scrap collector," Yinsen told the others as they passed a few villagers dressed similarly to him. "He and his team are in charge of organising and recycling all the materials we import or find."

"What's he like?" asked Tony, not really into it. His surroundings were too dull for a genius like him and he wanted - no, needed - some kind of stimulus.

"He certainly has his quirks. He is obsessed with anything metallic."

"Obsessed?"

"In love, obsessed, there are many words that fit."

Tony and Blake followed the man as he made a right and they walked into a tunnel going into the hill. It had unnaturally smooth earth walls that shone like polished glass. This contrasted with the rough earth buildings from before. Small dents were hammered in to make room for oil lamps.

However, Blake was completely focused on something different. She stopped and knelt down on the ground. Ahead of her, Tony and Yinsen stopped too.

"Ms. Blake?"

Blake willed her aura away from her fingers and touched the sand on the ground that was blown into the passage by the wind. Then, she pinched a little bit and rubbed it against her fingers. It was fine. Impossibly fine. She looked at the sides of the tunnel where a few tiny shards of glass like rock were sitting. Also impossibly diverse and small.

"This really is another world…" she whispered to herself. How did she not notice this earlier? Ah yes, probably because she was distracted by Tony.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, intrigued.

"In my world, nothing is this… defined," she tried explaining. "When things break, they break into almost regular chunks. There is very little dust. When it is like dust, it instead clumps together. Even the Vacuo deserts are more like small clumps of earth than… this." She stared at the sand with stupefaction.

"Could you expand on that, Ms. Blake? This sounds very intriguing."

The faunus took a moment to think. "Let me ask you something. How do metallic materials act in your world?"

"Well, normally, they just sit around and do nothing…"

Blake glared in annoyance. "I mean, is there a Liefer's Limit?"

"You'll have to define it. While our languages are similar in many ways, that concept did not translate."

Just her luck. She wasn't exactly an Atlas scientist, but she could try to explain. "Basically, it's the highest amount of deformation energy that could be applied to a material of a standard Avocado size without actually deforming it. For C117 steel, it is around two million joules."

Yinsen frowned. "Do you mean Avogadro?"

"No, Avocado. That's around 2.17 centimetres by 2.17 centimetres by 2.17 centimetres."

"So, your metal is harder than ours. I don't understand how that's mind blowing, hammer girl."

"That limit resets every day."

"What?"

"For example, if one million joules of deformation energy was applied every single day for twenty years, the metal would not deform at all."

The two men stared at her.

Yinsen was the first to recover. "That's… that's ridiculous! Such thing would break dozens of laws of physics! Metal fatigue would have worn away the material no matter how stron-"

"Maybe you define deformation energy differently," suggested Tony. "Deformation energy isn't even a scientific term in our vocabulary." He seemed to have taken the new info in stride.

Blake sat down, having gotten a bit uncomfortable kneeling. She stared at the ground in thought. "Hm… well, I…" ... _didn't finish my education and ran off with an edgy boyfriend, so I…_ "...read a really boring research paper while waiting for a mission. It stated that the official definition is the mass of impacting object squared times the fourth root of acceleration at the standard size, perpendicular to the surface." She had known that'll be useful someday!

"Fourth root? That is odd."

"Normal for us, as we use force in relation to aura, which is equal to mass squared times the fourth root of acceleration. This equation applies to anything that is directly embedded with human aura."

"That's how you were able to catch the bullet… still doesn't explain the insane reaction speed." Tony muttered.

"And aura… is the manifestation of the soul you were talking about, correct?" The asian scientist looked like he was going to fall over.

Blake nodded.

"Anyways, I asked about it because that is also why we rarely have dust or uneven debris. Matter itself has a sort of attraction to each other, allowing materials to self-repair when not damaged for a while."

Blake's mind drifted to the Atlas mech that team RWBY fought just a month earlier. In the first half of the battle, they had hit the mech with numerous direct hits and the mech tanked them without any visible damage at all. That was only on the surface, however. In reality, it was reaching its Liefer's Limit, and when enough damage was done, well, goodbye mech.

"Scientists have theorized that it is due to the planet's aura."

"Are you saying that your _planet has a soul_."

"It is generally accepted that it does not. However, anything that leaves our planet's atmosphere loses the Liefer's limit and any Dust that is equipped becomes inert. Why it happens is one of the greatest mysteries of our world. The answer is 'maybe'. However, I doubt it."

"I… I need to sit down." Yinsen didn't sit down, instead, he collapsed onto the ground into a pose that could be called sitting if you squinted. "The possibilities… the machinery you can build!"

Tony, on the other hand, took it much better. "Hammer girl, do you mean that everything on your planet has a health bar? Aura, matter, it all seems to be unchanging till a threshold is hit."

The faunus nodded. "That's actually a good way to summarize it, Tony. For once."

"Hey, I'm always good. You just don't get my Stark-brand genius."

"To normal people, that's called insanity."

"No, no, if I was insane, I would be describing your world as an animated one." Blake rolled her eyes. "Less particle effects and fewer model changes are obvious ways to make the show cheaper to make! Anyways, Yinsen, you need a minute?"

"No, no! I will be alright, Stark." He stood up unsteadily. "This is so intriguing! Didn't you also bring the hammers from your world? I need to run experiments." The scientist turned to head down the tunnel, muttering, "Lots of experiments…" Under his breath.

The two engineers discussed Blake's revelations for a large duration of the walk. The faunus girl was completely lost due to both the technical jargon and the complexity of concepts the two were spouting. They filled her two poor sets of ears with complete nonsense. Blake decided to leave them to their discussion.

...Wait, their nonsense really was all that she was hearing. Where was everyone else? She looked around her. There was no one except the three of them. An empty hallway. In fact, she couldn't even hear anything from the direction they were heading towards.

"Yinsen?"

The two intellectuals paused their discussion. "Yes?"

"Where is everyone?"

The asian engineer suddenly realized his error. "My apologies, it looks like we'll have to wait around before we can go see Yron. It must be the day of the Goddess, almost everyone should be attending mass right now. We'll go wait at Yron's shop."

They had just finally exited the tunnel and entered an enormous room.

 _Ah. A religious thing. That makes sense._ Now that Blake thought about it, the villagers had been hurryin-

Blake's eyes widened. Her ears bristled.

In the middle of the room, lit up by thousands and thousands of candles, was an enormous rock statue of Yang, at least four stories tall. Cheesy grin and pose included.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

 **A/N: Oh my!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **CR4Z1**

So Yang is in ironman too?

That would mean the same thing happened too Ruby and Weiss... Right?

Because i thought they were in another films.

 **Jjpdn:** Well.

 **Path:** Adds '..' to that.

 **Jjpdn:** DAMN IT PATH!

 **Guest** chapter 2 . Aug 8

Very nice, looking forward to more!

 **jjpdn:** Your wish is my command.

 **Path:** Good thing there's no specified timeframe there.

 **JustMovedIn** chapter 2 . Aug 21

Now I'm hooked. Please keep writing!

 **jjpdn:** No.

 **Path:** B-But Boss, does that mean I'm fired?

 **djmegamouth** chapter 1 . Aug 25

So she was also sent back in time. FAR back.

 **jjpdn:** Colon closing-bracket.

 **Path:** I need to teach him how to use smileys.

 **djmegamouth** chapter 2 . Aug 25

Really Rwby characters are we more powerful then most of the mcu. A lot of calc actually put Rwby guns as comparable to autocannon's and yang has a few strength feats that put her comparable to mcu hulk. Not to mention the damage they can take is beyond what modern weapons could dish out before they kick your ass and their stupid fast a Blake demonstrated.

 **Naisu.**

 **1968** chapter 2 . Sep 7

Love this story development is good am enjoying immensely. Here's hoping the others are found in good shape and not so badly aged or badly messd up . Emma Frost Wiess Shnee?

 **jjpdn:** X-men has too many characters. I can't deal with all of them and provide good character development for each one. Maybe cameos?

 **Path:** He means screentime. Wolverine is developed enough (those abs!), we just need him stabbing more things!

 **jjpdn:** What if he is Sun?!

 **Red Reaper**

Dude keep going and honestly, Ruby should meet iron man and it would be hilarious to see his reaction to Crescent rose.

 **jjpdn:** Well, actually, [DATA REDACTED].

 **Path:** Oh, I didn't see that coming!


	4. Chapter 4: The Cult

"Ms. Blake, you alright?" Yinsen asked worriedly. From the short time he had known the faunus girl, he could tell that she was not the expressive sort. Her reactions were always muted and guarded, or at least, as muted and guarded as a seventeen year old could make them. However, upon seeing the statue, it was as if the goddess herself had come to her.

The bow that hid her ears stood straight up. Her eyes were ever so slightly widened. Her mouth made a very small 'o'. On anyone else, it would have only expressed minor surprise, but on a normally expressionless face like hers it was shock.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

Blake's train of thought had gone straight off the rails and into a steel wall. The sight before her was impossible. Why would they have a statue of a person that they had never met? It must be a coincidence. She was in a new world. It was just quite likely that there was somebody else that looked just like Yang, with different clothing but the same exact shotgun gauntlets. Huh, weren't those paint scratches from their adventure in Mountain Glenn?

She shook her head. Has to be coincidence, or some alternate version of Yang. Does that mean there was some alternate version of herself too?

"Ms. Blake?" It's Miss Belladonna… she absentmindedly thought. Still, Yinsen's caring tone made her pay attention to him. "What's wrong?"

She turned to look at him with a thoughtful frown "I… this… this looks like someone I kne - know."

Beside them, Tony looked at the statue in a new light. "Huh. Guess I'd be just as shocked if I dimension traveled and then saw someone from my old dimension. You sure you come from a different world, then?"

Blake was suddenly unsure. It just didn't make sense. True, the way her team sent her into this new world was repeatable, as all it took was just Ruby and Weiss working together. But if they also sent Yang later, then how had she been here before her? Blake was pretty sure that if Yang had traveled to a different world before Beacon she'd be bragging to everyone she met.

That only left the possibility that this wasn't Yang, or something even weirder was afoot…

"Yinsen, has this 'goddess' ever walked the earth? Is she something that they…" Blake decided to choose different words than 'made up'. "...saw in a dream?"

The old engineer shook his head from side to side. "From what my wife, who is friends with many followers, told me, the statue was actually built by hand by Yron with the Goddess posing beside it for a few hours every day."

"What happened to the goddess?" Blake pressed on.

He frowned. "I'm not certain… you'll have to ask the others."

"We should go ask."

"They're in mass right now. I don't think…"

"Please? I would be very grateful." Blake _had_ to know. If there existed two of Yang in the multiverse… the consequences were unimaginable. The horror! She'll never get a moment to read!

"...alright." Yinsen gave in.

"Great! Time to meet some zealots!" Tony grinned.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

 _If there was a god out there, he must hate me._ Blake decided, a huge blush on her cheeks and her hands partially covering her eyes.

"I had warned you that it was peculiar, Ms Blake."

"..."

"Ha! Looks like cat's got her tongue!"

"Oh shut up, Tony."

They had walked through the tunnels for a bit until they had arrived at another large room, but this one was bordering the outside. Glass panes with what Blake had guessed were religious depictions were installed on the wall on the far side, letting light flood the room with a rainbow of colors. In front was an area for the clergy to speak and some tables for relics of all sorts. Benches were placed in a circular fashion, all facing the front of the room. The audience side was sloped so that people in the back could see better.

The room had been so crowded that Blake wouldn't have been surprised if most of the village was here. There were children, women, and men, all dressed like Yinsen, filling every single row and some even having to sit on another's lap. Their hands were clasped in some kind of strange position with only index and middle fingers outstretched. Each had their head down, forehead against their thumbs.

They must have had good ventilation or something, as this many people normally made rooms unbearably hot. Instead, it felt cool.

"...and in the name of our goddess of light and life, may we dedicate this Tribute of Agility, as she had commanded!" The speaker in front of the room declared in his calming, aged voice. He was elderly. His long white cloths reached all the way to the ground. White hair poked out of his turban, above equally white eyebrows.

In response to his words, four men had stood up in the crowd. They were dressed differently than the others, with less cloth on their arms, leaving their muscles on display. The people around them made room as the men strolled to the front of the room. Blake didn't think much of them at the time… _oh, how I was so naive_ , Blake thought.

"Tribute of Agility?" Tony had murmured beside her. "What, they gonna use household items to destroy the warheads of two missiles, then jump off their broken shells and land through the window of a helicopter? Yeah... don't think so. This is going to be pretty lame."

"At least they look like they'll be doing something agile." Blake had snarked at her companion. "Unlike somebody who stood there as we were being attacked…"

The genius of engineering had looked offended at that. "If I had my suit and mods, I would have been a grade A badass! I..." he trailed off as the men on stage lined up and settled into horse stances. Someone beat powerfully at a drum.

Blake had stared. _Why did I stare? Stupid Blake! This is what got you into the White Fang mess!_

Then the men had ripped off their upper body cloths in one smooth stroke, revealing...

 _Faunus are tortured… random people turn to dust… and now this?_

And that was how she ended up with blushing cheeks and hands over her eyes. _Oh my god… did the priest say 'dedicate this tribute, as she had commanded'? This has to be Yang's fault… only Yang would do this… and only she would put me through this!_ She prayed to whatever gods - any that weren't Yang - that were listening that this wasn't an alternate version of her partner. How can she live in a life with two Yangs?

In any other situation, Blake would not have been embarrassed at all in the presence of dancing, shirtless men, more so just uncomfortable. She was quite a bit more mature than girls her age, having seen much to have forced her to grow up during her years in the White Fang. The problem was the context. _Did Yang find my other books?! 'Tributes?!' This is… this is just like House of the Sun!_ _Did she find the rest of my porn?! I mean, my… steamy books?!_ Blake's weakness: the plot of her many books.

Hands still over her eyes, she could hear the men exclaim in time with the accented drum beats. They were still dancing. She could still remember the bulging biceps, the chiseled abs, and wondered if the rest of chapter seven will happen. _Don't think about it! Think about something else, like your team! Ruby eats cookies, Weiss is surprisingly friendly for an SDC heiress, Yang has lady abs, Sun, her stalker-friend, also has quite the abs - damn it!_

"Sheesh, and I thought the UAC were weird. They still use swords for god's sake." Tony sighed. "Hey, hammer-girl, want to leave, I really want to get started on aura experime… you are peeking through your fingers, aren't you?" commented the infuriating man beside her.

"No!"

…

...maybe a little? Technically, there was nothing to be embarrassed about. Sun went around bare-chested. It was just… She lowered her hands for a split second, only to bring them back up when the men flexed in a very specific way that dripped with machismo. It wasn't what they were showing, it was what they were doing. Wait, did one of them wink at her?!

 _Yang…_

"And now," the priest guy announced from the side, "the Tribute of Strength!"

Power corrupts. Blake knew that all too well. With strength, one can enforce even the wildest of rules or pursue the craziest of dreams. It made monsters of good men, and turned humble servants into greedy lords.

It also turns Yangs into a person who would do _this_ to poor unsuspecting catgirls.

There was a strange growling sound. The faunus peeked quickly through her fingers and regretted it.

 _Yanggggg…._ Blake collapsed to her knees. It wasn't due to despair, she told herself valiantly.

The men had split up into two groups and wrestled on the ground. They roared in exertion at each other, every muscle on their body bulging as the fibers strained to their very limit. The competition was very controlled, with little movement in order not to damage the items around them. Was it a good idea to do so much exercise in an enclosed room full of people? _It seemed to be getting warm_ , thought Blake as she stood back up, only to have her eyes locked on the drops of sweat as they traveled from…

 _Since when did my fingers spread out again?!_ She squeezed her eyes shut, not trusting her fingers to cover them. _Chapter seven ending…. Chapter seven ending, is ItHappeningIsItHappeningIsItHappening?!_

"Blake, your ears are standing straight up - "

"Shut up, Tony!" she quietly hissed in mortification.

"Cat out of the bag? No worries, cats don't belong in bags anyways. Cardboard boxes on the other hand... You want a cardboard box to hide in?"

She glared at him.

"Anyways, hammer-girl, this is quite weird. Even I'm getting a bit creeped out, and I mess with people for breakfast! None of this even happens at mass; this isn't a religion! It's a cult!"

Two winners were then decided and their prize was awarded to them. The villagers chanted. A 'drink of the Goddess', otherwise called a strawberry sunrise, for each. _Yang… really?_ The men returned to the crowd.

Blake lowered her hands and threw another quick glare at the older man beside her, who clearly was terribly amused. Further to their left, Yinsen leaned forward to talk to the young girl. "Did this confirm or deny your suspicions? If it makes you uncomfortable, as it had first made me, then we can leave." He asked with concern. _Thank god for Yinsen._

"Agreed. But kitty-cat's looking a bit interested. Save me from teenagers!" _Thank the devil for Tony._

Before Blake could answer, the elderly speaker walked back to the middle of the stage. "Many thanks to our brave volunteers! Our next tribute will be for the goddess of knowledge and wisdom, who has not appeared in the mortal realm yet."

Another goddess? Knowledge and wisdom? Blake's curiosity spiked.

"Can we please welcome high priestess Narie to the front!"

A woman dressed in strangely familiar clothing stood up from the sitting mass of villagers. She wore a white, strapless dress that ended quite high. On top was a similarly snow white bolero jacket. Her hair was dyed white, as Blake's sharp eyes could see that the roots were still black.

It suddenly came to her. The outfit was a version of Weiss'. This was either going to be really good or really bad, Blake decided. The left corner of her lips moved upwards into a slightly vicious smile.

"Hammer-girl! Are you sick?" Tony gasped in surprise.

"What is it now?" She glanced at him, annoyed.

"Y-y-you smiled!" He stuttered.

"..."

"Admirable job trying to set me on fire with your eyes, but it looks like your biology does not grant you that ability. Everyone knows laser cannons go on sharks." Tony stroked his chin, where there were strangely no stubbles even though he hasn't had a chance to shave for a long time. "Hmmm, now I really wanted some shark genes. What do you think, laser cannons go well with my complexion, Yinsen?"

"...Stark, that question does not deserve an answer."

"I'll take that as a no."

Blake turned away from them. _I smile all the time! I'm just more controlled. At least I smile more than the ice queen!_ She pouted internally, making sure to keep her expression neutral. _Though Weiss has been getting along quite well with Ruby and Yang… and she really isn't that bad._

The woman strolled to the front in a manner very much unlike the proper heiress that Blake remembered. Instead of small confident steps that were caused by Weiss' small stature, this Narie woman took large, slightly zig zagging steps, allowing her hips to swing from side to side. However, their strides were both confident, and they both held their heads high.

After she finally turned around, Blake was certain that it wasn't her white-haired teammate. For one, the facial structure was completely different. Two, she had cleavage.

 _...burn, Weiss_. Even if Blake had learned not to judge Weiss by her father's actions in the Schnee Dust Company, it didn't mean that she couldn't childishly tease her in the safety of her own mind.

Tony blinked. "A mockery of greek plays?"

"Let the Tribute of Grace begin!"

On stage, the woman place the back of her hand over her forehead and dramatically leaned backwards, as if about to faint. "Oh Neptune, oh Neptune, where are you, oh handsome Neptune?"

Blake made a strange, strangled sound.

One of the men from the previous tribute walked onto the stage from the opposite side. He arrived before the priestess. This time, he was wearing a pair of yellow-tinted goggles worn on his forehead. And he fully dressed now. "I am here, my love!"

"Neptune, god of the sea, please, I must admit… we have been lovers for a century, but you still cannot do what I would love to do the most… dance!"

The man dramatically gasped as if he was shot. He fell to a knee, and then spread his arms out in the way only an Shakespearean actor would. "Oh, what cruel words, my love! They pierce through me like the phalanxes of ancient Greece! My tears will flood the seven seas and drown even the moon!"

The watching crowd laughed at his acting. Blake just choked harder. The two engineers beside her stared at the play with about as much enthusiasm as a student would stare at his most boring professor, being completely out of the loop.

"Good Neptune, my sweet Neptune! I am so terribly sorry for my cold words. They were so inconsiderate. They may have been right when they call me the ice queen!" She made sure to stretch out the word 'inconsiderate' the emphasize it as she bent forward to hug the man. "My darling, you feel faint! Oh… what will I ever do?"

The man made exaggerated cries of despair in her arms. "Oh, the humanity! I am slain!"

"Oh gods above! What can I do to snap him out of his misery?" weeped the woman. "Alas, I must pull my ultimate weapon!"

She moved to be near his ear and stage whispered "I-t's not l-like I l-love you or a-anything, baka!"

The man snapped to a sitting position.

"My love! You are saved!", she cheered.

By the doorway of the room, Yinsen and Tony stared at the young faunus girl beside them who looked like she was dying. Of laughter or of second-hand embarrassment, they didn't know.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

Far away, on the wide, open, green Salisbury Plains in Great Britain, something much more serious was happening.

"Where is he?" a synthesized, genderless voice boomed in russian.

In the west side of the field stood a legion of gigantic, mechanized, bipedal machines. They towered over everything around them, being taller than most skyscrapers. Each one was made of trillions of separate moving parts, making them look like they came out of a Transformers movie. They had a primarily blue color scheme highlighted by red.

Opposing them, were only three much smaller humanoid mechs, only about the height of a three story mansion. Unlike the over complicated look of their opponents, they were blocky. Metal plates of unknown alloys were secured on a stretchy fabric-like base that covered their inner workings, while tough struts made sure that the armor didn't move. Each mech was also personalized, with widely different models, color schemes, drawings, and little extras attached. This made them a lot more pleasant to look at than the legion, whose uniform look made a sea of blue and red.

"A pleasure to meet you too, Stane. But may I ask, who is it that you seek?" A stern feminine voice, also replying in russian, came out of the speakers of one of the small mechs. This red-themed, bipedal robot stood professionally in between its guards. It had a more distinctly feminine look than all the others, and wore an extra layer of strange armor that imitated a tight fitting tux.

Directly across from it, one of the robots standing in formation broke away to approach. Two others followed in step behind it. Their actions seemed to ignore wind resistance or inertia, causing huge disturbances in the air and large craters wherever their feet would land. Their walk shook the earth. They stopped a small distance away from the smaller mechs, towering over them.

"You know exactly who, scum."

There was a moment of silence as the dust the huge robots made settled to the ground behind them. Then, the opposing lead robot of smaller stature crossed its arms.

"You NAU still haven't learned better insults in russian. Or any manners. You tell us that we need to meet up, then choose this god forsaken wasteland as a meeting spot?"

The larger machine expanded, sucking in air, then expelled it, like breathing, like a person trying to reign in their temper. Grass, debris, shrapnel and dirt were blown away around it, but the smaller mechs at the edge of the blast didn't budge an inch. "We do not care about your opinions. Where is Tony Stark?"

"We have no information about hi - "

"Do not take us for fools!" The larger one roared. "We know you interfered with our search, commie."

"It would not be the first time your knowledge is incorrect, then."

"You dare?!"

The shockwave due to the loud sound distorted the air. None of the mechs reacted. The small red mech kept its perfect composure as well.

The red bipedal stared fearlessly back into the gigantic, accusing, blue optics. Not even a flinch. "I liked it better when you were a team with him, Stane. More amusing, and witty. Who are you piloting with right now? Sora? Ren? Or maybe your suit has a leak and the radiation around us is getting to you?"

Silence.

She sighed. "Always so hot and so cold, hm?" The larger mech remained silent. "However, we both know that war will not benefit us. Not with the Conglomerates growing more powerful every day. You know I would never jeopardize his safety."

"Stop this posturing. You know something. Tell us."

"I was truthful. The information we have isn't about him. It would interest you to know that it wasn't us or the UAC who disrupted your trackers. Russia would have been happy if you recovered him without further incident, and you know he has strong ties to the Wakandan royalty."

There was more silence as the towering machine glared down upon the much smaller one.

"I would be happy if you could send any information you have over, actually. As part of the international cooperation initiative." The feminine mech tilted its head, and its face plates shifted into a robotic smile. "What we know, was that there was a disturbance in the fabric of reality in the Middle East."

"Hyperspace travel?" The red and yellow machine enunciated slowly in disbelief. "So close to the surface? Impossible! Stop insulting our intelligence!"

"No." The female-like mech shook its head. "As you said, impossible to be hyperspace activation. Something strange has happened, breaching several treaties against space time manipulation, but also so strange that nobody in Russia has seen patterns like it. Our data will be sent to Stark Industries head-office in a day's time."

The bigger one inspected its counterpart cautiously, a bit surprised at the sudden helpfulness. "...you are very generous today."

"Just returning a favor."

"A favor? ...what kind of favor?"

"Oh… you make me blush. Just a nice foot massage."

The larger giant's fist tightened and its optics closed. A strange, metallic grimace came over its inhuman face. "He still…? That boy. We… understand. We will contact you in time, Ambassador Potts." The mech turned to address the rest of its army. Wind bellowed as its movements distorted the air due to its sheer size. "We will take our leave now. These suits aren't as comfortable as they used to be."

The female mech watched their retreating backs. She turned to her guards."There's something more to this. I want the spy satellites stationed and ready for invasive maneuvers by Monday," she said into her squad's private comms.

"Ma'am, you didn't tell them about how similar it was to the energy signature that caused the Japan incident."

"Of course. If we can recreate that ancient weapon first, then we will surely break this uneasy peace in our favor."

Both sides separated, leaving the radioactive wasteland behind.

None of them saw or cared that their movements have unearthed relics of the past. Where the red and yellow larger mech had stood and unknowingly excavated, a broken, faded Soviet flag was impaled through the body of a partially buried, decomposing soldier. On the body's shoulder an eagle emblem was shown.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

Tony narrowed his eyes. "I think I'm forgetting something. Something important. What was it? It has always been her who was in charge of the schedule..."

"That's not how I act!" Blake reiterated for the thousandth time.

The man sighed. It had been going on for a while. "Yes, ham-girl."

"I would never jump into a group of my enemies and yell 'Hello, look at me!' Never happened before, I swear! Not even when justice was on the line!"

"Yes, ham-girl."

"A-and no matter how it seemed, I don't get distracted by laser pointers! T-that's racist!"

"Yes, ham-girl."

"And stop that!"

"Yes, ham-gir - ow! Sheesh, I'm listening."

The three of them had retreated to the hallway so they could talk. The villagers were singing a hymn. A very embarrassing hymn about tuna. _How could they ruin tuna?!_

Blake glared at Tony, cheeks blushed from embarrassment and anger, while Yinsen tried to play mediator. "And why ham-girl now?! That sounds… undignified!"

"Please, we should all calm down and take a deep breath." Yinsen tried.

The american engineer rubbed his shin where Blake had kicked him. "Well, 'catgirl' is out since you hated it, and 'hammer-girl' is too long, so I shortened it. You are quite correct, on the other hand. 'Ham-girl' sounds like a female 'Spiderpig'. What do you think of 'Catwoman'? That's a superhero."

"How about just Blake?!"

"...on second thought, you kick pretty hard. Blake sounds good."

Yinsen stepped between them. "As interesting as your squabble is, we should talk about important matters. Ms. Blake, why did you want to finish watching the villagers worship?"

The cat faunus gave one last glare at Tony before looking at the politer, less infuriating, and obviously superior engineer. "That statue we saw before looks exactly like my teammate with the same weapons and everything. The clothing's just a bit different. When I left my parent dimension," she winced, "It wasn't great, let's say. I just wanted to know if she had also crossed over somehow. If it really was her."

The elderly man nodded and stroked his small beard. "Ah, I see. What's your conclusion?"

"It has to be my teammate. No one can be this… this…" Blake's ears twitched agitatedly under her bow. "This annoying! She knows exactly the things to poke fun at. What I just don't understand is why? Who am I kidding, this is exactly to poke fun at me." She seethed. However, the faunus will admit that the Weiss jokes were pretty funny.

"Hm…"

"What is it, Tony?" She stared at him blankly.

"Many of the tributes seemed to be tailored to either get you or this 'Weiss' girl annoyed by making fun of experiences that only you two could know. Strangely targeted. Am I right?"

Blake, dumbfounded at the serious expression on Tony's face, nodded. _Is this a dream?_

"Have you thought that maybe this is a message?"

She thought of the giant emblem outside. _Could it be? Maybe it was. If I look around, I could figure out if she left anything... But how was she able to set all this up? It doesn't make sense. There was no way she had enough time. I was back in Beacon then instantly teleported here through Weiss' portal. Unless… it looked only instant for me._

"Coming through!"

Blake agilely stepped to the side as four men carried a large tray past her. She was about to glare at them when her eyes fell upon familiar pieces on top of a wide golden pillow in the tray. Her heart skipped a beat.

The High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe that her young, innocent teammate, Ruby, wielded was easily recognizable to her, even while shattered into fragments and covered with dried blood.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

What makes a person a bloodthirsty, unrelenting murderer?

Was it due to birth? Was it insanity? Or maybe vengeance?

For Cinder, it was none of that.

What she wanted was something normal that everybody craved.

"Hm?"

The tall, curvaceous woman stared at the seer grimm that floated towards her with its dark grey, pointed tentacles swaying side to side. She still wore her Haven Academy uniform: a well-ironed black jacket with a light gray outline, and a wrinkless black and white checkered skirt. The dark colors matched her carefully-done, shoulder-length, onyx hair.

"What are you doing here? You are going to blow my cover." She whispered as calmly as she could through gritted teeth. "Did that idiot, Tyrian, send you?" Her expression was the epitome of collected fury. She made a quick sweep of her surroundings. Nobody. She was alone in team CSMN's dorm room.

"No."

"S-Salem! I-I apologize." Her expression did a one sixty. "It is quite the pleasant surprise." She regained her composure in a flash.

"There has been a change of plans, Cinder." On the seer's shiny surface, the figure of the queen of the Grimm appeared, as if the monster was a spherical screen. The deathly pale woman sat at the head of her table, hands crossed in front of her.

"My queen?"

"There have been recent developments, Cinder. All our plans are on standby till further notice."

Cinder blinked. "What?!" Her carefully constructed facade shattered into a million pieces. "B-but, the maiden powers - and the r-relics - and - your Grimm attacking Beacon - it's the perfect time! And - and - "

"Cinder. That is all." The image faded as quickly as it had come to be.

Cinder gaped.

Mercury poked his head into the room. "Cinder, you think we should do something..." The whole building shook. "...about all the destructi - "

"GET OUT!" she screeched.

"Boss, don't you want - " The doorway lit on fire. "Woah! Going away right now!"

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

"Thank you so much for saving us, Cinder!" Happily thanked Ruby. "You are such a nice, kind, awesome and nice person!"

"Your kind words are very much appreciated, little one." Cinder smiled at the fifteen year old at front of her. "However…" She glanced at her hands that were getting enthusiastically shook by the small girl. "I'll admit that my hands are starting to feel numb…"

Ruby sheepishly let go.

Yang grinned. "Cool moves, girl! Thought I was toast!" Behind her was a pile of disintegrating Grimm bodies.

Weiss stood beside her. "We are in your debt, Ms. Fall. Let us know if there is any way we can repay you." She bowed.

The tall, dark haired woman's smile twitched. "Aren't you a polite little girl."

Weiss twitched. "Wait, what, little?!" she muttered indignantly under her breath, in spite of the serious situation. "I'm five foot three!"

Yang leaned towards Weiss. "Five foot three in heels, you mean?"

"Hmph!" The white haired girl turned up her nose.

Cinder smiled condescendly. "Now, now. I'm sure you'll grow in a few years. I was about your height when I was thirteen." She turned to leave, missing Weiss' expression. "Anyways, that is enough delaying. We should head towards the meeting point now. It wouldn't be a good idea to stay within a collapsing school, would it? Follow me." The woman sprinted back the way she came.

"Yeah…" Ruby looked around. The room shook as pieces fell from the ceiling. Explosions rang out in the distance and distant screams were cut short by roars. It was difficult to stay positive and not attract more Grimm. So, she focused, tried to focus, on something amusing - anything amusing. "Did she say t-pff-thirteen!" Ruby muffled a giggle with her hands. Yang choked.

"Hey!"

"Come on, little girl, we gotta go! You want a piggyback ride? Or do you want to hold my hand?" The golden haired girl grinned, wiggling her hand at the seething SDC heiress.

"You! - "

The two sisters had already rushed after Cinder.

"Get back here, you - you rapscallion! You'll pay for that!" Weiss ran to her blonde teammate's left side. "Xiao - " Then, she saw Ruby's expression, who was across to her right.

"Cinder," the girl looked to be struggling to be her usual upbeat self. "Do you know what happened to all the other students?"

Yang narrowed her eyes at her sister. "Ruby… we can figure that out later - "

"I do believe they got turned to dust." Cinder told her.

"Yeah… I know… But you think they can be, um… unturned from dust?"

Yang saw the warning signs for what they were. "Ruby! Stop asking about it! We'll deal with it later, ok, sis?"

"I need to know, Yang!" The youngest girl in the group pleaded.

Weiss raised a finger. "Ruby, remember our classes! You'll attract more Grimm if you keep thinking along those lines." She scolded.

"It's just… I watched Ren and Nora turn to dust… I don't want pancake time to be gone forever…" There were tears at the edges of her eyes. She wiped them away. "I'm sorry! I'm trying to stay positive!"

There was a moment of silence between them in which they only heard the sounds of battle and their own running.

Hesitantly, Weiss agreed. "It was so sudden. Everybody was there, safe. Then, suddenly, there was only half of us left. Sun, Sage, Alexa, all gone…"

"How horrible." Cinder sincerely said. "My condolences."

Yang blinked. "Who's Alexa?"

"She's from team APPO - why are you making that face? You do know there are teams in Beacon other than SSSN, JNPR and us right?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"What. Oooh, you mean the shadow people?"

"Shadow people?!" Ruby squeaked.

"Seriously, you two?!" Weiss let out a long, suffering sigh. "There are no shadow people! Unless that's what you call everyone else that you rudely ignore!"

Ruby stared at her white haired teammate. "Hello?" She waved. "Socially awkward here, not rude - ack!" She tripped over something and fell to the ground.

"Ruby!" Her two teammates cried, stopping and turning to help her.

"Watch where you are going, dolt!"

Ruby rubbed at her forehead. "Sowwy, Weiss…" She then looked back to see what had tripped her, and screamed.

It was a charred arm, cut off at the elbow. The fingers were stilled wrapped around a mace. The skin was burned away, leaving charred muscles exposed. From Ruby's angle, she could see the cauterized stump and the bones that -

"Guys, snap out of it!" Yang tugged on her stunned teammate's hands. "Let's go!" A section of the hallway behind them collapsed, unleashing a cloud of dust and debris. "Guys!" Weiss stared at the scene with equal horror.

"That's enough!" Cinder appeared beside Ruby, a second later slinging the girl over her shoulder. Ruby's head smacked against the taller woman's back. "Grab your teammate!" Yang was quick to comply, and the two of them madly sprinted towards the exit as more of the building behind them began to collapse.

"There's someone else in front of us!" Yang called out. There was daylight seeping into the hallway, the far brighter contrast forcing their eyes to take time to adjust. Only the person's figure was visible. "That's great!"

The figure noticed them too. "Other survivors! Want to stick together? I think my aura's gone."

It wasn't a voice Ruby, Weiss or Yang recognized, but they'd take what they could get. Cinder and Yang slowed down as they neared the person. All they could tell about them was that they were male, before they saw the large form behind him.

"Watch out!" called out Yang. Her hand moved to the hammers holstered on her belt, while the other kept hold of Weiss, but she didn't have enough time.

"I see it!" He dodged.

Or at least, he would have, if he hadn't slipped. A small piece of glass went skidding on the floor while the boy fell onto his side.

Ruby's eyes widened as her back was suddenly wet. A warm wetness. The moment she realized what it was she shut her eyes as tight as she could, and held on to Cinder for dear life.

"Oh... my…" her ride muttered.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were just students, learning cool huntsmen stuff, worrying about marks and taking boring classes. Sure, they fought criminals from time to time, and Blake always seemed to be worrying about something, but it wasn't actually dangerous or anything.

Ruby sniffed.

Now people were randomly turning to dust, body parts were lying around, people were dying… it all just came out of nowhere. It was ridiculous. It was shocking. It didn't make any sense, and she just wanted it to stop and return to how it once was. Why was everything just… bad suddenly?

"Calm down, everyone!"

 _You calm down, Yang!_ She retorted in her mind. The wetness on her back was sticky and disgusting, and horrible, and she knew she should not think about it. Easier said than done!

"Negativity will not help us here." The person carrying her commented.

 _I'm trying!_ Ruby annoyedly thought.

"Do we run back inside?"

"Look at its size!"

"Heads up, there's also a Grimm dragon coming straight at us!"

Wha -

Her ride suddenly launched in a direction and she opened her eyes in reflex. She then felt Cinder release her. Ruby landed on the ground and rolled with her momentum before there was an enormous explosion and debris pelted her aura.

Disoriented, she tried to focus on the world around her. Were the others alright? Her ears were ringing and the whole world seemed like it was turning sideways. She grasped at the floor, trying to find a handhold, until she found growing fissures underneath.

No, wait, the world really was tilting! Why was the world tilting? And fissures shouldn't grow!

The floor fell away.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

 _Salem's probably just not feeling well._

Cinder curiously looked down at the giant sinkhole in front of her. Several floors above were decimated by the Grimm dragon's strike, and whatever it had done also critically weakened the foundation of the building. That left her standing in the division between open space and the rest of the barely standing structure. All according to her plan.

 _A Grimm flu or something. That's got to be it._

The three girls she was with before had fallen into it, with her being the only one who successfully escaped. That wasn't good, and it wasn't because she was worried about their health. No, it wasn't good because her objective might be down there.

 _Salem was the only one left who had never failed me. Never abandoned me. Right?_

Beacon had only a few floors, many towers, and a single basement. That was all in the building plans that Cinder had studied. So, there should be only one more level below the ground floor. Except, there were actually two. How curious indeed.

The problem was, if her prize really was hidden there, she'd have to fight those girls since they fell down too.

She smiled. _Guess I'll just have to get rid of them._ The blood from earlier still dripped down her arms.

Cinder leapt into the darkness.

 _~RWBY: Infinity Crisis~_

 **A/N: IT'S OUT!**

 **Also, don't worry Tony fans and the two Yinsen fans out there, the next chapter will focus on them!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest**

Cool

 **Jjpdn:** Cool.

 **1968**

I still love this story and the way it's definitely gonna be awesome.

 **Jjpdn:** That's great cause this story loves you too.

 **Sleipnir34**

I'm guessing, weiss is russia, and ruby is NAU and maybe pyrrha is europe/roman empire? I can't see them making the african union

 **Jjpdn:** I hope this chapter answered some of your questions. Except it didn't. So ha.

 **ShadowofAxios** chapter 3 . Dec 16, 2018

I think I'm following the story so far, but I think I'm still confused on general geography, and the apparent presence of three major powers in the world. Are they allied countries, singular powers, or simply the standard national layout as we know it? The explanation wasn't exactly clear.

 **Jjpdn:** Thought I'll slowly build on that instead of an information dump.

 **UseFistNotMouth chapter 3** . Dec 27, 2018

Good character interaction and writing. Very dubious on the AU.

 **Jjpdn:** We'll have to see then.


	5. Chapter 5: Shattered Part 1

**A/N: This chapter is HUGE. Like, 16000 words huge. So, I've split it.**

 **Beta: Path of a Writer**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

All those years. Fighting against his own guilt.

All those struggles. Seeing a vision of the future, of a coming destruction, that he could only see coming.

All that preparation. Late nights building armors after armors.

Useless.

A drop of blood, that's all he was able to do.

He stared at his hands, quiet, as the sun shone over the dead planet of Titan. The light bathed his defeated figure, and reflected off the broken pieces of his nanotech armor. The desert wind blew over the ruined landscaped.

Tony Stark coughed out the dust brought by the wind and winced. For all he knew, that could have been part of somebody he knew. Like… the kid.

Thanos had won, now half of everyone he knew were gone.

He failed.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"So, Miss I-don't-run-headfirst-into-things, what do you have to say about yourself?" A different Tony tapped his foot.

Blake stared at her feet. "Well, it's funny, cause…" She sighed. "I'm sorry."

"You should be." Yinsen added.

Blake's ears drooped. She looked up to the third man in the room, also the oldest, who was covered with tequilla, orange juice, and strawberries. It contrasted hard with his white beard, bald head, and aged features. Her ears drooped further.

"I'm sorry, Elder Yron."

The elderly man shook his weary head. "Ah, the follies - " He chewed on something. "- of youth."

"Technically, it was you who levitated all the metal and…"

The three men stared at her. Yinsen crossed his arms. Yron removed a strawberry from his beard and ate it, all while holding his gaze. Tony let out an quiet exhalation of amusement.

The three of them stood in a different room. This one was filled with random school supplies for some reason.

"It was a logical response to your sneaking, young lady. It isn't safe around here, especially not with the Al Faath more active than ever. And, I must say," Yron narrowed his eyes ", you walk, like an assassin. I would know." He whispered the last part to himself.

"Assassin?" Blake replied incredulously. "I haven't even killed a person!"

"That's what an assassin would say." Yron's eyes narrowed more.

"What kind of logic is that?!" She looked to the others for help.

Tony was about to say something, but Yinsen's hand on his shoulder stopped him. Blake looked at the older man, a bit hurt.

"Yinsen is right. I would not have believed them either. A true assassin knows the art of deception even better than the back of his or her palm."

"Ms. Blake, that's just how he is, sadly. You'll have to earn his trust to proceed… and Elder Yron, I mean no disrespect, but I do believe it goes 'the back of her hand'."

"Silence, deceived!"

"Seriously?" Blake moaned into her hand. "Do I honestly have to deal with this?"

"Young lady, you will prove yourself trustworthy, or I will expel you from this village faster than a Spitfire!"

"So what do you want me to do to prove my allegiances?"

The elderly narrowed his eyes. "That's exactly what a liar would ask…" He chewed menacingly.

"T-tha! What?! You! You… argggh!"

Tony took a bite out of a sandwich and interjected. "Hmmm. Yo, Aaron, uh no. Yron, old man. She..." He took another bite. "This isshh good. Just the right mix of peanut butter and anchovies. Anyways, you can't not trust her. She has cat ears under that ribbon."

Yinsen stared at the sandwich that Tony was certainly not holding a few minutes ago.

Blake glared. "Tony?! How does that help at all!"

Yron stroked his soaked beard and focused on the top of the girl's head. The ears twitched. "Hm… I guess that means you are trustworthy, young lady." The elder turned to Tony. He ignored Blake, who just stared blankly at them like they were the two biggest idiots in the world. "You. What is your name?"

"Tony Stark, nice to meet you."

The two chewing men shook hands.

"I am Elder Yron, first of Her light. May I ask, is there any relation to Howard Stark?"

"I am his son."

"Ha!" It was a mocking laugh. "You do have the look, but not the gaze!"

"The gaze?" Tony straightened up and gave an exaggerated smouldering stare at the wall to the old man's right, undeterred by Yron's tone. "Like this?"

"No!" His exclamation was accompanied by everything metal in the room jumping. Tony looked around him with interest. "Everytime he looked at you, you knew you had his attention. You, on the other hand, are obviously a misguided buffoon!"

Tony's attention to Yron. "Woah there, old man! I've made a few mistakes…" Yinsen coughed. "...some mistakes..."

"Mistakes that got you caught by terrorists because you ran away from your guards." Yinsen dryly added.

"...not my fault, my guards were distracted by a four-breasted woman."

Everyone stared at Tony.

"What, some gene mods go weird. The woman liked it, it seemed. The additions, not the attention." He rubbed his chin. "No, she definitely liked the attention too - "

"That's it!" Blake stomped forward and stood between the two chatting men. She glared up at Yron, who was a head taller. "Do you know where is Yang or not!"

A smile broke out on his face. He stepped back and bowed. Beside him, Yinsen smiled, while Tony chewed in confusion. "Finally. Of course, anything for you. I had recognized you as one of the goddesses the moment I saw you." Blake inched backwards, confused. "My lady, a word of advice. You did not like it when I questioned you unfairly, did you? But you shouldn't have needed to take it sitting down. A _goddess_ does not say sorry, Ms. Belladonna. A goddess does what she likes, with pride and purpose."

"I'm not a goddess."

"May I?" He reached out a hand towards hers. The girl hesitated, but still put her hand in his.

His hand glowed a weak pale silver, while hers glowed a strong dark purple.

"Is this not the light of your soul? Your will made into reality? By your will does nothing harm you, and by your will do you move mountains."

Blake looked at her aura, noticing that it was strangely stronger than it was in her old dimension. "I never thought of it like that…"

"Ms. Belladonna... Here, where there are no gods, and only man, your power can become... boundless."

She pulled her hand away. "You are mistaken. I am mortal. I can die like anyone else."

He rolled his eyes in response. "Youngsters these days. So quick to assume. I'm not saying you are immortal, I'm just saying that you are more powerful than you think. Powerful like a god. By your agile stance, by your focused gaze, I can see that you are driven, unlike that useless pile of potential over there."

"Useless pile of potential?" Tony mused. "Wait, is that a compliment, or…"

"However… you are too used to be restricted. Too used to be…" He leaned forward, eyes darting over her form. "...oppressed."

Blake gasped lightly.

"Think on it, Ms. Belladonna. Come." He turned and his robes spun with him. "I have a message from your teammate." He walked out of the room and headed left down the hall for the tribute room.

"Your family name is actually Ms. Belladonna?" Yinsen stated more than asked. "Since you never told us this, this goddess must be your Yang. Interesting."

"...no it's more of an insult. He must be referencing my lack of activity as a leader…" Tony continued musing. He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully.

Blake ignored the two men and rushed after the elder.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

To fight, or not to fight.

For the longest time in Remnant history, the Faunus were merely unable to. Without support, without freedom, and surrounded by monsters of darkness who hunted everyone by negativity, many chose the easy way out.

After the Faunus War, everything changed. Now that they had their freedom, they merely chosed not to fight. Why risk your life against the numerous kingdoms when you could protest? The cost of the War was fresh in their mind, no matter how often their grievances were ignored.

So, many kept their heads down. Easier to avoid confrontation and live your life as happily as you could. But Blake… she could not sit comfortably in her house when her people were forced to work in mines by the new bonds of capitalism. Better than steel chains, but not by much. Still, she did not fight in the day, and only sought to make change in the night. It wasn't like she had the power to do much else.

Until… this.

 _Powerful like a god._

It can't be true.

Blake arrived back into the tribute room. The villagers had left now that their crazy session was over, leaving it feeling empty.

Elder Yron stood on the far side, looking out the window. His hands rested on the table where their religious relics were placed. Light from the sun went through the pale stained glass and bathed him in rainbow colors.

"She first arrived at our village seventy years ago." He began to narrate.

Tony and Yinsen entered the room and stood behind her.

"A local warlord, one of the last ones, was attempting to seize the village. We agreed to his terms, but when he realized he couldn't hold this position against the last king of Afghanistan, he decided to burn it down."

"That's horrible," Blake whispered.

"The warlord was smart. To reduce casualties to his army, he had them round up our men in the night. I was fresh out of Auschwitz, weak, and they got me and everyone else without much trouble."

"They were going to make you slaves?" She gasped. Her hands balled into fists in anger.

Yron laughed. "Slaves!" It made Blake flinch. "No, we were too far below them to even live as slaves. Anti-semitism was at its peak in the world, and the horrors of the Holocaust were not yet public. Ha! They threw us on the sand in the west, untied our legs, and told us to run. Then, they shot at us. We were target practice, Ms. Belladonna. Less than slaves, and even less than animals. The women and children that weren't awake yet were woken up by our screams."

Blake covered her mouth, eyes wide in shock.

"I still remember it clear as day, my lady. The bullets soaring by me, the men around me falling like flies. The scent of blood and gunpowder in the air." He took a deep breath as he seemingly re-lived it. "I also remember screams of women and children, powerless without weapons, who were forced to watch as their husbands, brothers, sons and fathers were cut down." There was a short quiet sound, like metal grinding on metal.

"That… I…"

"Come, my lady." The elder motioned to his side.

Blake hesitated.

"Please." But there was something in his tone that made her concede to his demand...

She moved to his side and looked up at his face which was bathed under the sunlight. Something small on his cheek glowed as it slid down, reflecting the sun's rays. It was a single tear.

"Look, my lady." He gestured to the outside.

She took a second glance at his face before she followed his gaze.

Plants dotted the sand's surface as it extended to the horizon. They stood valiantly in the desert wind, uncaring of its withering heat. Around them, a sea of granulated quartz made each piece of life an island of its own in an otherwise lifeless ocean.

"In the desert, where in the day it burns and in the night it freezes, the miracle of life still perseveres. But like all miracles in the unforgiving desert, there is a price to pay."

The lone tear fell. Blake's eyes followed its descent until it hit the floor and sank into a crack in the stone.

"My lady, the field before you was barren, till seventy years ago."

Her eyes widened in understanding. "But - but, there are hundreds of plants!"

"And there were a thousand of us."

Blake's eyes widened.

"Each of those is a grave, Ms. Belladonna."

"So many…" She covered her mouth in horror as tears gathered at the edges of the her eyes. Blake had finally realized she wasn't just looking at sand, she was looking at a mass grave. Bodies upon bodies of slaughtered men.

The two men beside her stayed silent.

Even though Blake had seen some questionable things in the White Fang, nothing had prepared her for this. The stress over the last day had built up behind her dam of self-control, but this was the catalyst for her walls to come down. And out did her worry for her team, for the faunus cause, and everything else come, in a flood of tears.

He closed his eyes. "We prayed to our God, but He did not answer. We screamed for Him, but there would be no Moses to save us. So, we desperately ran, but in the open desert there is nowhere to go." The elder turned around to face the three.

She could almost imagine it. Bodies laying on the sand, becoming nothing but manure for plants to grow. She could almost see the bullets fly through flesh, and blood spray into the air. She wanted to vomit, but settled for sobs instead, all while still looking at the mass grave.

Yron's eyes snapped open. "It was at that moment that she came in with wings of fire. Her golden hair piercing through the darkness like the dawn. The warlord's men shot at her but bullets could not touch the divine. She raised her fist in response… and that was it. One single punch, and she wiped out an army. Ms. Belladonna. We owe her a debt we could never repay."

Tears dripped down Blake's face. "Why do this?" She whispered.

"We were different from them and that was enough."

In Blake's imagination, the nameless victims grew animal traits. _We were different from them_. She stood on the bloody sand, tears streaming, hands shaking in horror. _..and that was enough._

She shook her head to clear her vision. "But how could they do this? How could anyone be so cruel?" She forced out between sobs. "What kind of _monsters_ were they?"

Yron sighed. "They were just human, like us. Pawns in a game beyond their comprehension."

"No human or faunus would ever do that!" She spat.

"Ms. Belladonna," he put a hand on her shoulder, "This isn't your world. There are worse things that can happen than just forced work." He calmly said. "You are too pure, too innocent, for this blooded world. Just like how she was too."

Yinsen stepped up. "Elder, Japan…"

Yron met the man's gaze. "She never admitted it to us, but she left us mere days before the incident." The elder continued. "Forty years later, she would return to us, changed mentally but not physically by a world that would not accept her cause. We kept her existence secret like she had asked, and she stayed with us. She taught us things she learned out in the world and trained us to become more than we were. Finally, as a parting gift, she opened my eyes fully to the light." His aura shimmered. "So, Ms. Belladonna, I must warn you. When you find her, she may be a changed woman."

Blake wiped away her tears with her hand. "Thank… thank you for telling me, Elder Yron." She sniffled.

"The past really was a different time." Tony muttered. He stuffed the last bits of his sandwich into his mouth. "Of, 'at's a 'otta 'eople." He swallowed. "That's bad." The hand with the sandwich stilled. "Er, that did not come out right. I mean, terrible event."

Blake glanced at him, a bit shocked.

Tony realized how nonchalant he sounded. "I just mean, I mean, am I the only one who doesn't feel much? Not that it's not a horrible thing, but, I mean, the Soviets did much worse."

Yron glanced at him in distaste. "And you will never live up to the legacy of your father like that."

Tony pointed at himself questioningly, as if asking 'me?'. Receiving a glare as answer, he just nonchalantly shrugged. "I know. How could I ever?"

Yron raised an arm before Blake who was about to angrily go up to Tony. "Don't be furious at him, my lady. Disappointed, yes, but not furious."

"He just acted like -! Arrrgh! To your people!" She continued to glare at the engineer. The girl angrily wiped away the last of her tears.

"Look at me, please."

Blake did as he said begrudgingly and instead of Tony, glared into Yron's tired eyes. "Stark is an especially complicated man, my lady. He has loyalties to many conflicting sides. He may be a right asshole,"

"Hey!"

"...but at the end of the day, he may be just the asshole the world needs."

Blake blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Read about our world, Ms. Belladonna. And you will understand."

"Could you not explain now?"

He shook his head. "There is too much to say."

So, reading. That's not bad. Blake decided to do so as soon as she could. She needed to know more about this world. The girl then glanced at Tony. And get more information about him.

"One thing I don't get is why the Grimm didn't intervene, elder?"

"My lady, there are no Grimm in this world."

There had been too many revelations and crazy events in one day for Blake. So, "What?" was all she could reply with.

To be free of the Grimm was a dream come true for all the residents of Remnant. The hunstmen and hunstresses know that in reality humanity was in jeopardy, and even if the full truth was kept from the masses, the monsters' existence stayed as an uncomfortable thought that always hung in the back of their heads.

A world without Grimm was a paradise. Except, it was not.

Blake's gaze turned back to the outside, to the graves that extended to the horizon. A world where man was free, but somehow still bound by racism and hatred. That... that was so stupid! So stupid! No great overarching threat, so they turn on each other harder?

"Ms. Belladonna, are you now ready for the Goddess of Light's message?"

Blake ended her train of thought and returned her attention to the elderly man. "Uh, yes, elder."

"I will repeat it word for word, so listen very carefully."

She nodded.

"I repeated it once every week since she left, and carved it into countless pieces of metal. There is no doubt it is correct." He warned.

Blake nodded again, a bit annoyed.

"Alright. Here goes." He paused.

The faunus flatly glared at him at this point.

However, the elder wasn't joking with her. He was just hesitant. "I apologize, my lady, it just may not be what you want to hear."

He took a deep breath.

"She told me to say: 'Do not look for me. Find my sister.'"

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Stark."

Tony looked up from the scrap pile he was sorting through. He and Yinsen were back from the cultists and were attempting to find parts to repair the helicopter. Blake had given him the cold shoulder on the way back and had now locked herself in the small library.

"Yes, Yinsen? Don't tell me you are mad at me too, I know, insensitive. Apologies." Tony threw a piece of useless machinery into a junk pile behind him.

"No."

The younger man stopped and looked up at the older engineer. Yinsen sat nearby at a table, focused on a few actuators.

"I understand very well your position, Stark."

"Funny joke, but not in the mood, Yinsen… don't be insulted if I don't believe you." He paused. "No, actually, do be." Tony then turned back to his work. He picked up another piece and wiped away a bit of soot. "Why do you guys have heater units in the desert?"

"It gets cold at night."

"Your blanket merchants must be terrible. Have you thought of buying from Stark Industries? Ours are military grade."

The older man was undeterred by the change of topic. "Stark. I've barely known you for a month, but you are far different than what I expected."

"More arrogant? Better looking?"

"Certainly insufferable, but I expected a hard man. After all, who else could lead a company like the Stark Industries?"

Tony scoffed. "Don't you watch the news? Right, you leave in the middle of nowhere." He removed a plate off a broken robotic arm. "Oh, found it!" He threw a small actuator that Yinsen easily caught.

"Reception is not good, but it suffices." Yinsen plugged the part into a microwave sized machine on the side. "That's all the parts for the landing gear."

"Finally! Now, the good parts! Let's get started on the aura diagnostic equipment - "

"Stark. Let's talk."

"Nope, no need to talk - lotta work, very busy man. CEO, dictator, all that jazz."

"Fission reactor at thirteen in your backyard. Hundreds of patents for different household devices, and thousands for the military. You are a genius never before seen in the world… and you used it to prank the Wakandans by using a thirty day media campaign to make them think you found a material harder than vibranium. You caused a market crash that saw a million people panicking."

"What, you mean I should have solved world hunger instead? Preposterous!"

Yinsen stroked his beard. "Among other things."

"The answer is no. Busy being selfish, and a dick." He held up a bright pink ribbon with hearts tied into a bow. "Think this'll be a good apology present? That girl is obsessed with ribbons, I swear. Why not wear a turban or something - oh nevermind, does her world even have turbans?"

The older engineering stared at the ribbon and Tony knew he was trying to imagine the sullen, angry, and impulsive girl with the girlish ribbon. It didn't fit.

Tony was surprised when Yinsen swiped it from his hands. "Hey!"

"Then you do things like this." Yinsen held it up closer to the window. He felt it with his hands. "Interesting. It feels like it is made out of satin, but where did you get the material?"

"Oh, you know, just over there." Tony vaguely waved at the pile of clearly metal-only scrap beside him.

Yinsen narrowed his eyes, then felt underneath the ribbon where cat ears were supposed to go. Suddenly, the bow turned to blue, then to black. Then back to the pink colour scheme.

"Aw, was going to tell her about that feature after she wore it for a few days."

The older engineer looked amazed. "How…? Anyways, that's not what I was trying to say. This bow has straps over here in order to better secure it to her secondary ears. It's a very strangely nice gesture to do."

"It kept falling off. Seriously, her whole disguise was built around a flimsy piece of cloth. It was a miracle it didn't fall off sooner." The genius paused. "Or, it could be equipped with a mind control device and be part of a super secret plan to convince director Furry - or was it Fury - to create an army of superpowered cat girls in order to please my furry supporters.."

Tony and Yinsen stared at each other.

"Yeah," Tony stretched out the word, "not a great plan. But feasible. See, I - " He held up a piece of paper with stick men drawn on it.

Yinsen interrupted him. "Stark, please. Your positions offers you a prime opportunity to change the world. I know deep down, you are a good man, Stark. After we escaped the caves, you came back for me, even though you could have flown off alone. You fought their air support yourself. When you got shot down, my heart stopped for you, Stark."

Tony put the piece of paper down. "It was the only path. I couldn't leave you there." He said seriously.

"A three kilome - "

"Four, actually."

Yinsen sighed and corrected himself. "A four kilometre fall. It was only a miracle that you survived without much injury. I will not forget that anytime soon. But what I need to ask you, is why you only display that immature side of yourself to the general public?"

Tony turned to the pile of metal parts before him and continued working, "First of all, it's pretty easy. That's who I need to be. I'm used to it."

Yinsen sat back, putting his tools down to focus his attention on Tony.

"The three superpowers of the world are one mistake away from war, Yinsen. We, the North American Union, are catching up to Russia at an incredible speed and it's scaring them. On the side, the African Conglomerates are occupied with bringing order to their territories, but the moment they are done, or believe that the other two are a threat to be put down… They will have no mercy on us."

"And playing the fool helps to appease them?"

Tony raised a circuit board closer to the light. "Actually, yes. The soviet bastards are too lazy to look any deeper, and I'm not being racist. Their societal structure lacks any freedom of movement, because they made it optional. Free food? Free lodgings? Dumbest thing I've heard since Anakin's speech on sand." He broke it apart and picked out transistor chips. "Nobody on the bottom wants to move up, and rarely does anyone on the top care enough to improve themselves."

"And Ms. Potts?"

Tony grinned. "That woman's like me. Special. Never satisfied." He took a moment to remember a pleasant memory.

"Second thing is that I just didn't know about all of..." he gestured outside. "I mean, I did, but I didn't know first hand. I never took it seriously. It's always on the news. It's almost become just another shooting, just another genocide. It's always there, but it's never been personal. You understand what I am getting at?"

The older engineer nodded slowly.

"I've got so much to do. Gotta manage the media, trade deals, inventions. Half the country wouldn't run if I took a break!" A part he made earlier, a replacement for a section of their helicopter engine, broke apart. "Damn it!"

"Just like all the arms deals." Tony continued. "I knew, but I didn't understand. I mean, a thousand people, Yinsen. What is that?"

Yinsen raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

Tony brought his attention to his hands that had grabbed a broken toaster and stripped it for parts while they were talking. "Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I can't imagine fifty people, nevermind a hundred, or a thousand."

"Tony…" Was that condemnation in Yinsen's tone? No, it was… understanding? Tony decided to continue.

"Really, what is a hundred people? Take this screw." He lifted up a screw closer to his eye. "I understand this screw to the molecular level."

Yinsen stroked his beard.

"I meant conceptually. The molecules are made out of atoms, the alloy is most probably ninety-eight percent iron, then two percent alloying elements like manganese, carbon, tungsten, and etcetera." He rolled it over in his palm. "They are commonly made by thread rolling. There are thousands like it. Each identical, industrially produced, and easily imagined in orderly rows and columns."

He let it drop back into the pile of scrap. "But people? So different."

Tony reached into his loose flowing cloths and picked out, one by one, numerous strange metal constructs about the size of tennis ball and shaped like a metal angle piece. "Close family, that is about two or three people. Distant extended? Maybe five in addition, ten to twenty for everyone else. Friends? ...four? Or maybe five-six-seven-ish? Then, adding acquaintances, that'll be a total of about fifty people." The little constructs laid before him made a half-circle around him.

"But any more, and they become faceless." He placed another. Then another. And another, until it became a crowd of grey steel. "Just soulless automatons. No time or heart to care for so many. Just a series of robots to manage."

"And Tony Stark, one of the most important men in the world, has a lot of robots to manage. He doesn't have the luxury, or ever the opportunity, to see faces. All he can do is look at the larger picture."

"Woah… that sounds bad. I take it bac - huh?" Yinsen's hand on his shoulder startled him.

"No. I understand, more than you think I do, Stark. However, that isn't the whole reason, is it?"

Tony stared at his metallic constructs. "No. It is not." Their little flat faces seemed to stare back at him expectantly.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was fought in the Pacific and Asia." Sajiao read out loud.

Blake fumbled with the atlas beside her to figure out where those two areas were. Were they cities? Countries?

The two of them were sitting at a table. A pile of books were laid before them, with topics all relating to the Second World War. They were all sadly in different languages that Blake didn't know how to speak or read, so she had to ask the elderly woman for help.

World building was one of Blake's favorite parts of her books, second to perfectly-normal-absolutely-nothing-to-be-ashamed-of other scenes. It is the atmosphere, the society, and the culture. The imaginary worlds that authors create had always made her smile in awe and she had spent numerous sweet summer days dreaming of them. When she got bored, she would jump from rock to rock, imagining herself as a voyager leaping through a landscape of golden ice. Or swing through the trees as a native defending her sacred grounds from the oppressive industrialist powers.

Once upon a time, it was only fiction, until she crossed worlds and made it real.

"It was fought over a large area, spanning China, the Pacific Ocean and Islands, the South-West Pacific, and South-East Asia."

Blake looked up from her book. "Sorry, is the South-East Pacific another ocean?"

"No, that's just the name for the theater."

"The theater?"

"It doesn't say here what it means by 'theater'. Maybe there was a popular theater that was destroyed and they named it after it?" She continued reading. "The start date of the Pacific War is debated due to the Second Sino-Japanese War beginning on July 7th, 1937 - "

"Could you skip over the dates? Just tell me what happened."

"Hm…" The old woman adjusted her reading glasses as she skimmed over the text. "Just like the others." She said seriously. "A lot of people died."

Blake sighed, knowing that the elderly woman was just trying to lighten up her dark mood. "How many?"

Sajiao's raised her eyebrows.. "It says more than thirty-three million and five-hundred thousand people died, even while excluding the ending."

"So many…" The faunus whispered. Over the last hour, she had been shocked again and again by the number of deaths. On Remnant, its population was but a measly one hundred million. Thirty-three million is one third of everyone! That would be like if all of Vale had died. As if Yang and Ruby had died.

Yang and Ruby! She had to find them! Then, she realized something. "Japanese? Is this war related to the 'Japan Incident' that Yinsen mentioned?"

"Yes. The war ended with it. I'm unsurprised he mentioned it."

"So, what happened?" Blake pressed.

"No one is really sure. It may be easier to show you how it changed our maps." She said ominously.

It was Blake's turn to be surprised. Large border changes, maybe? She watched as Sajiao looked through the pile of atlases before finding an older edition. Then, the woman opened it beside Blake's current atlas.

The contrast was stark.

"A whole part of the map is missing… yet the two atlases are published only months apart." Blake stated quietly.

The woman smiled weakly. With a finger, she traced inland of the coast of China, Russia, the US, and many other countries surrounding Japan. "That's because all this is gone. The event was nicknamed 'the Sinking of Japan."

Blake stared at the map.

While it is commonly understood that you can't really sink an island, since underneath the island is solid rock, it should be noted at just how incredible such a feat is. Not even all the nuclear bombs in the world, blown up together, could vaporize such an enormous area.

The faunus girl was thinking of something different, though. "Yang wouldn't do this. She's not a killer." Blake insisted. "Someone else did it and framed her. She doesn't even have the power to - "

"I'm not suggesting anything, Ms. Belladonna. You wanted to get a look at our history, didn't you?" The old woman interjected calmly.

Blake took a breath. "Right."

"Hey! Missed me?" came a familiar voice as the curtain of beads that acted as a door to their room was suddenly thrown to the side as Tony strolled in like he owned the place. It caused the two females to jump in surprise.

The elderly woman rushed to his side. "Young man! Think about the beads!" Or rather, rushed to the beads' side. The beads swung and hit each other, sounding like, well, a bunch of beads hitting each other. While the beads themselves were strong in comparison to their costs, they could get ripped from the strings if a large amount of force was used.

"Oh." Tony raised his palm to eye level, where a broken bead lay. He glanced at Sajiao, who was behind him fussing with the curtain. He quickly stuffed it into his pocket beneath his cloths.

The elderly woman spun. "And Ms. Belladonna!" She called. "Get off that lamp post!"

Tony snorted. "Not a cat, she says," he commented, earning a glare from the faunus who did as the elderly woman said. "Anyways…" he said awkwardly, getting ready to apologize. "I shouldn't have taken the history behind the plants so lightly. I'm still confused as to why they are so important to you, but here's a gift."

Blake stared at the offering.

"And thanks for saving me. Not that I really needed saving, technically, but it saved me time."

Sajiao slapped his back. "Just apologize!"

"I am!"

"It doesn't sound like it."

"I'm not saying the 'A' word!"

The old woman looked confused. "The 'A' word?"

"Of course,"

The old woman sputtered. "You mean 'apologize', young man?!"

Blake ignored the byplay. "You are not going to buy my forgiveness, Tony."

Tony nodded, having expected the response. "Don't think of it as a gift to buy your forgiveness then. Think of it... as a thanks for saving me." No one said he planned out a good answer though.

She was quite unimpressed. "You said a second ago that you didn't even need saving."

"I said it saved me time. So, I spent time to make this, and now we are even on time!"

Sajiao hummed. "I'm following that logic…"

"Urgh… fine!" Blake snatched the bow out of Tony's hands, but paused for a second when she felt the nice material. As she put it on, Tony explained to her a few of the features and she was mildly impressed.

"How about this, since I'm kinda an important guy in relation to Stark Industries, why don't I help you with your search for this 'Ruby' person? I can even provide you with legal documents for the duration of your stay."

"And in return…?"

"You know it, kid, aura experiments! Your aura is the most wondrous thing I've ever seen since MK!"

"About that." Blake answered slowly. "What are the chances that your research would fall into the wrong…" Wait a second. Didn't Yinsen call him Tony Stark? And didn't Tony mention a weapon manufacturer called 'Stark Industries'?" Tony, are you trying to weaponize my soul?"

"Why would you… oh." He paused. "I… am a weapons manufacturer and board member of Stark Industries." He finally said as if it was a revelation.

The elderly woman behind him looked exasperated. "How could you forget something you were doing for your whole life!"

He looked a bit embarrassed and sought to ignore that. "I'm not looking to make your soul into a weapon. I'm trying to derive tools from your aura technology that could defend my people from outside threats."

"...that's what 'weaponize my soul' means." Blake answered flatly.

"No." He replied. "Kitty-ca - kid," he quickly corrected himself, "I said tools. That means things that civilians use. Plus, I'm not asking you to do it for free. I can compensate you well."

Compensate. So he was well off, Blake thought. Experience told her that those kind of people should not be trusted. Not because all rich people were spoiled brats or some kind of generalisation, but because mistaking an influential man as an ally has far dire consequences than if he was a beggar. However, it was also true in reverse. He would make a far better ally than the average person too. That's why Blake has to play her cards right. She needs to judge him.

"Have I told you about my race, Tony?" To get information, sometimes, you must give information. Her card has been placed on the table.

The other two in the room noticed the subject change but didn't voice it.

"Not really, you've been mostly answering me with glares. Are you telling me you aren't human?"

The women in the room stared at him.

"Tony, cat ears?"

He looked confused. "It's not a robotic attachment? Or a gene mod?"

"Sometimes I forget how advanced the rest of the world is," muttered Sajiao. "Ms. Belladonna, the Russian Federation and the North American Union are leaps and bounds ahead of most countries due to the technology they stole from Wakanda. It is much easier to modify your own body to specifications over there."

Body modification?!

Tony stared at her. "You say that's natural?" He looked unconvinced. "Ah yes, cat ears, sounds like natural evolution to me." He said sarcastically. "Because the chances of cat ears appearing in the primate line makes perfect sense."

"I come from a different world," She answered flatly. "Whatever rules you have here don't apply."

"Explain to me then. How do cat ears suddenly become part of the human genome without some kind of godly miracle being behind it?"

Blake blinked. "I mean, it just is. Nobody questions it. My race has existed since the beginning recorded history."

"Ah ha! It makes no sense!"

"Not everything needs an explanation, Tony."

"Sounds like the poor excuse of an uneducated infidel. Alright, have fun with your delusions. Go on."

She glared at him. "Ignoring the whining of a certain man-child,"

"Really? Childish insults? You do know you are the only one here under thirty, right?"

"Young man, youth is in the heart, not in the body!" Sajiao interjected. "Just like how there's plenty of youth inside these old bones!"

"...the FAUNUS…" Blake raised her voice. "...are a race of beings who are identical to humans, except for the fact that they have a single animal trait."

"A single one?" Tony rubbed his stubble-less chin. "So, if you have a shark fin, you can't also have the gills?"

"Yes."

"That's strange. I can understand conflicting traits, but why only a single trait in general?"

"..."

Tony hummed. "I don't see how animal traits conflict with each other. Why not the gills of a fish and strength of a lion? Or maybe the scales of a dragon? No, wait, do you have dragons?"

"No." Blake answered flatly… though technically there were dragon Grimm. "...yes. You can ask me about details later. The important thing is that humans discriminate against us."

"That sounds quite illogical. Who could ever hate catgirls?"

Blake's cat ears twitched in annoyance, earning her a surprise hug from Sajiao.

"That sad expression when you were talking about the racism… I just want to hug that sadness out of you! It looks so out of place on such a cute little girl like you!"

The girl hissed like, well, a cat.

"I really don't see why. Are faunus rare? If so, then I can see how humans gained supremacy over them. Or maybe the humans conquered them through superior technology?" Tony theorized out loud.

"Get her off! And no! We make up about a fourth of all sentient beings and we were all together since the beginnin - stop it!"

"Too cute~"

Tony sighed. "It's truly a terrible day when I am the most mature person in the room."

"The only time that happens is when you are alone. Now help me!"

"So there are a lot of you, and you progressed technologically together." Tony thought. "Are most faunus especially weak?"

Blake finally disentangled herself from the woman and leapt backwards to create some distance. She eyed the elderly woman, daring her to try again.

"No, actually. We have distinct physical advantages. A lot of faunus have superior physical traits, like a poisonous stinger functioning as an extra limb, and my father has claws instead of ears like me. Most faunus have perfect night vision too."

"Shouldn't it be the humans that are discriminated against then? If it came to war, then the humans would have been slaughtered. Night time ambuses have always been a prefered way to decimate your enemies. Don't tell me you are all pacifists or something."

Blake thought of the White Fang and the Faunus Wars. "...no. Maybe we couldn't deal with three times our number. I'm also not a historian, Tony. I'm a school girl who got teleported into another world. What do I know?!"

"Sounds more like a poorly made plot device, honestly. Anyways, I get it. That's why you teared up. You thought of your people. Pretty terrible stuff."

Blake stared incomprehensibly at Tony's relaxed face. "How are you so - so unaffected!"

"Hey, pretty affected, overpowered warrior school girl, problem is genocides happen a lot. I can count at least four in the last century - the Ukrainians, the Armenians, the Japanese, the French… - it goes on! Sure, it's horrible, but it's common. People hate each other. Can't change that."

"That's the difference!" Blake looked incensed. "It shouldn't be the norm! And more importantly, back in my world, nobody has ever done something like that!"

Sajiao and Tony both looked at her like she was crazy.

"...mass killings then. Any of those?" Tony asked.

"No!"

"Large scale politically motivated executions?" Sajiao tried.

"I already said no!"

"Terrorist attacks…"

The girl was about to say yes.

"...that kill thousands, generate nationwide panic, and will be remembered for the next century?"

"No!"

The two adults shared a look.

"Maybe you are just really sheltered then." Tony stated.

Blake threw her arms up in the air. "Or maybe your world is messed up! No human or faunus could justify killing off a large amount of people! The amount of negativity that would create would doom civilization itself!"

"Negativity?" questioned the elderly woman.

"Yes! It would attract so much Grimm that both sides would be annihilated…" Blake's eyes widened. "Wait… You have no Grimm!"

"Yron mentioned it. What are those? Are you talking about the brother Grimm who made fairy tales?" Tony asked, interested.

"No!"

"Maybe a species of dogs?" The elderly woman added innocently.

"I hate you both!" Blake's tone carried no serious heat behind it, but she was clearly exasperated at their guesswork "The Grimm are monsters, enemies of both humanity and faunus."

"With how you talked about the faunus, I thought you'd be against discrimination."

Blake wanted to choke the smirking bastard. She took deep breaths to calm herself. "The Grimm aren't sentient. They are mindless and are attracted by negative emotions. Unlike everyone else, they also disappear on death and are never seen to do anything but cause destruction."

"Or it could be propaganda." Tony pointed out. "What if they are driven to insanity because of humanity's endless despair and infighting? They actually could be poor cuddly creatures."

Blake paused. Then, she shook her head to get rid of the Stark brand insanity. "No, they attack everyone on sight."

"I see what you mean, Blake." The genius took a moment to gather his thoughts. "They may be evil or whatever, but they are in reality a blessing. Your world actually owes them one, Belladonna. Without them, who knows what kinds of horrors your humans could inflict on the faunus."

The cynical teenage girl had come to a similar conclusion. "An unbeatable force serving as an universal policeman. I never thought of the Grimm like that. I guess it could make sense..." With this new revelation, she wasn't so certain that this world's humans were just born more morally corrupt than her world's.

"Still, I don't see how this lore-bit has anything to do with you being against aura experiments."

Blake balled up her fists. "In present day, the biggest source of discrimination comes from the Schnee Dust Company. They hire faunus workers at extremely low wages and have very poor workplace safety."

"Are you saying that you are distrusting me because I run a company?" Tony asked incredulously.

Blake opened her mouth, before deciding to close it. Wasn't this what she had done in regards to Weiss? Judging them not by their own merits? Was it fair of her to judge someone because of their background, when the very cause she fought for was the equal treatment of everyone no matter human or faunus? No. It was completely hypocritical. "Now that you put it that way…"

The faunus' opinion of Tony, the man, was actually almost positive. He may be infuriating, but the banter helped take her mind off darker things, like everyone likely dead back in Remnant. From Yinsen's story, it could also be extrapolated that Tony was also loyal to his friends. Those were all good qualities. Plus, his position in his company made him a very valuable ally and she had already dealt with a Yang before.

"Alright," Blake conceded.

"You help me, I help you." Tony spun on his heel. "Follow me. Thank the goddess of light for this opportunity!" He clapped his hands together and prayed skyward.

Blake groaned and followed him, while Sajiao giggled into her hand.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

The stars looked peaceful in the heavens, uncaring of the tragedy below. They drifted without care in the infinite abyss, dancing carelessly, pulled by the invisible strings of gravity. How Tony wished their world could be like so.

He opened his eyes. The scene was exactly the same.

What?

He sat up and looked at his surroundings. The man wasn't on Titan anymore. He was drifting in space? Without his armor? And how was he even sitting up? He looked at his translucent body. And without clothing?!

"Be at peace, Tony Stark. Your journey isn't done yet."

Tony looked around frantically for where the calming feminine voice came from. All around him were just the endless stars.

"The hell?" He whispered.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Are you listening?"

Blake yawned in response. She had spent the last few hours helping Tony and Yinsen with their strange experiments and it had grown dark outside. She was also getting tired. "Yes."

"Ms. Belladonna, I can't stress how important these tests are. We must know the extent of your abilities, less another Japan happens." Yinsen scolded her.

"I know, I know." She was just that tired. Blake grabbed another cookie from the plate on the table beside her and bit into it. Hmmm. Ruby would have loved these. Blake eyed the large pile. Sajiao had brought them in an hour ago, but the engineers were much too busy with their tinkering.

Maybe the two should have been scientists instead, with how excited they were with research.

Tony raised his head from a makeshift computer screen. "This data doesn't make sense! It's like the effect of your aura varies all the time. Blake, you certain you kept the aura constant?"

"Yes, for the thousandth time, Tony, yes!"

"There's at least a thirty percent randomness to almost every quality! How does this even make sense?!"

"It _is_ the power of the soul, Stark." Yinsen reminded. "Maybe we should figure out first what it can and can not do. It could be related."

"Okay. Trying that. Skipping to Section E, Experiment #1."

"There are five sections? We were on the first, for the whole afternoon!" Blake sighed.

The room they were in was filled with repurposed devices. From pencil sharpeners to laundry baskets, everyday objects were reused to become a makeshift laboratory. There were machines to test material strength, a small chemistry set for chemical analysis, and others.

"No, there are seven, and I'm skipping to this section because I was terribly curious."

Yinsen facepalmed.

"About?" Blake asked.

"Yron mentioned himself being blessed by the 'light of the goddess'. Your aura covers you like purple glowing plastic toys that you find in Dollaramas, it must be what he was talking about."

"Are you comparing my soul to cheap plastic?!"

"Sorry, more like the fluorescent slime they sell." Tony ignored her fuming. "The important thing is that she gave him that power! That means..." He grinned and raised a suggestive eyebrow.

Blake, on the other hand, paused. Should she really be unlocking aura left and right? Back in Remnant, the power of aura was restricted for few reasons. On the other hand, it also seemed it wasn't that big of a deal since Pyrrha unlocked Jaune's aura without much consequence.

But in this world, where her aura seemed more powerful, was it truly a good idea to give aura to a man she had only met for a few days - no, a single day?

The teenage girl took a few moments to think, before nodding. "Yes, as perceptive as always, Tony. I can do so too."

"Soooo…"

"Of course, Tony." Blake sat up from her chair and walked towards him. She lifted up her hand… and laid it on one of Yinsen's shoulder.

"Eh?!"

A dark purple glow shone around her, giving her a halo of darkness. "For it is only in justice that we can trust. Through this, we become an example of virtue and fairness to all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, charge thee."

Yinsen chuckled. "She got you!"

In response, Tony just exhaled amusedly and poked Yinsen's shoulder to test out his aura. Instantly, a green casing like shining glass appeared, before shattering and dissipating into nothing. "Er, is this normal?" He asked, before noticing Blake's state. "Kid, you okay?"

The girl stumbled backwards. Yinsen reacted quickly, catching her and helping her back onto her chair.

"S-sorry, it just takes a lot out of me. I'll be fine with a bit of rest, then I'll do Tony's." She took a breath, and looked back up. "And Yinsen, it looks like you have extremely low amounts of aura. So little it couldn't withstand Tony's poke."

"That is unfortunate." Yinsen looked a bit worried. "Are you sure you are well, Ms. Belladonna?"

She smiled back. "Thank you for your worry, but I will be fine." She leaned back in her wooden chair and let her sudden exhaustion run its course.

Tony interrupted her rest. "Did you know Yron actually eats metal?" He suddenly said, without even looking up from his instruments.

Blake glanced at him, before closing her eyes again.

"For once, Stark is not mad, Ms. Belladonna. The sight of elder Yron putting steel into his mouth is commonly seen…" Yinsen winced. "...and ignored."

Blake did remember hearing metal grinding noises during their conversation, but eating metal...

"My lady, Stark, Yinsen." came an aged voice from the doorway. "I've come to pick up the scrap basket."

Tony pointed at a scratched up metal bucket filled to the brim by one of his strange contraptions. Yron strolled into the room and grabbed it, before turning around and leaving without another word.

Blake's eyes were wide. "Is he…"

Yinsen gravely nodded.

The faunus girl closed her eyes again and wished for this world to make more sense. "Why did you even bring that up, Tony?"

"Why not?"

Blake's ears flattened against her head in distress. Then, she decided to ignore it, got herself comfortable, and, slowly, she succumbed to her tiredness and fell asleep.

A few hours later, late into the evening, she was woken up by Tony.

BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

"That blasted…!" Blake cried, trying in vain to cover her ears but then realized that she had four ears and only two hands.

"Sorry, sorry, the new irrigation system I'm making is quite complex and requires some alarms to notify workers of problems."

She hissed at him and shuffled a bit on the hard wooden chair. Tony's cursed machine bleeped again, making her quickly turn away from the sound.

"You should probably head for bed, kid. That chair looks as comfortable as a bed of nails, or a Sora hug after he didn't get his pancakes."

Her back was a bit sore. She stretched, feeling a nice tingle at her extremities, then begrudgingly got up.

"Hey, kid… I know it seems a lot to ask, but may I also be blessed tonight? Don't think I can sleep with this opportunity in the air. I'll count it as a favor."

Blake sighed. A favor from an important man like him was invaluable. "Fine! Just don't ever call it being blessed again."

She put her hand on his shoulder and pushed her aura into him. The girl closed her eyes and was about to chant, before she suddenly realized something was off. "Tony, your aura…"

"What's the hold up?"

"Your aura, it's already unlocked."

Tony stared at her. "That's impossible. I would have noticed if I had superhuman abilities. Are you saying it's terribly weak, like Yinsen's?"

"I don't know." Blake whispered. It was like nothing she had felt before. The feeling reminded her of an unlocked soul, but with none of the aura. Instead, it reminded her of embedding her weapons with aura, except it also was not...? How could that be?

"To make sure, punch me." He patted his chest, to the left of the strange glowing object in the center of his chest. "See if I feel any different."

"You are protected by my aura right now, so theoretically... " Being protected by another's aura was not unheard of, just rare for someone to devote focus to it during battles. "Maybe in the morning?" She was quite tired.

"Come on. Scaredy cat? Don't hold back. For science."

Blake was pretty grumpy then. Deciding that Tony had dug his own grave, she cocked a fist and punched him straight on where he had indicated… and her eyes widened.

"Tony!" she screamed.

His eyes had turned glassy as whatever feeling she had attributed to his soul moved outside of his body. Unconsciously, her aura expanded outside the body to catch it, but then she realized that the feeling was getting drowned out by background noise due to how weak it was. Where did it go? Where was it? Panicking, she shook his stiff, unmoving body, trying to wake him as if he was asleep.

It must be the other souls in the air causing the noise, she thought. The souls of this world were quite different from hers if they were able to be separated from their physical body like this, and be felt like this. However, it wasn't time to think about the implications, she had to save him!

Time seemed to slow as her valiant efforts turned out to be useless. She had tried to feel around the air aimlessly, but it was just inundated with other souls. She couldn't tell his from the others. His physical body was also completely unresponsive no matter where she poked or prodded.

No, wait. Blake let his body go. It floated in mid air. Time really has stopped.

"Hehe, Blake, always so brash. Though it is his fault this time, encouraging you like that..."

The girl agilely spun towards the voice and settled into a combat ready stance. She eyed the shadowy floating figure covered by a flowing black cloak that had suddenly appeared behind her.

"Who are you?"

"You'll find out in time." The voice was female and mature, but also timeless. It could have come from anyone from the age of twenty to sixty. "Please, do not do anything like this again to anyone you care about, ok?" The figure floated to Tony's side.

Blake glared at her with suspicion, but didn't move as the strange being cupped a single bright spark with its wispy tendrils. "This is his soul, Blake. Come, feel its light."

The girl tentatively inched forward, still unsure about the situation but knew that she also had to help Tony. She awkwardly stuck her hands forward to surround the spark with her aura. It was difficult to isolate it from everything else.

"Now, pull it back into the body. You'll find some resistance. All you have to do is push through it." The being guided.

Blake did as she was asked. Still, it wasn't an easy task, since she didn't even know what to categorize the feeling as. Was it touch, pressure, or sound? Her senses couldn't understand it. The light of the soul was a mysterious thing.

Feeling like she had enough of a grasp, she started guiding the soul back to its body. When she felt the resistance, she pushed harder.

"Wait, Blake, not that hard! The spacetime around here is still soft - "

And suddenly the world unfroze.

She collapsed on the ground, gasping and taking in short breaths as if she had run a marathon. Same were the other two people. Blake tried to bring her breathing under control.

...the other two people? Did Sajiao or Yinsen rush in to help?

She lifted her weary head off the floor to look at the second figure. It was Tony. He looked alive, with how he was touching his face with a shocked expression. The man must have been terrified by his close brush with death. Though, was it just her, or did he look older?

Blake then turned her gaze to the other one. It was also Tony, but this time the one she knew.

"Eh?"

"Hey me. Do Pepper and I work out?" the younger one, her Tony, asked.

"...sure, me." It was strange, the older one was also wearing a copy of the younger Tony's clothing.

Blake shakily pointed at them both. "Eh?!"

"Nice."

"Hm. What time period am I in, me?"

"Pre-marriage to Pepper."

"Pre-engagement." the older one corrected.

"EH?!"

"Catgirl there is right. We need names. This is going to get confusing, me."

"Since you have to be Tony, why not call me Twonie?"

"Great."

Blake fell off her chair.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **A/N: Next up, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Cinder!**

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **1968** chapter 4 . Feb 20

Okay I'm slowly working things out I'll have it worked out in a bit Cinder though threw me for a loop.

 **Jjpdn:** If that threw you for a loop, you probably shouldn't read the next one haha.

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **EfylNep** chapter 1 . Feb 20

Eh, just come here to say that this looks like something that should be done after Endgame (so that plotholes may be filled right.)

Then again, more originality this way? (less chances of plagiarized storyline like 95% of the Zero no Tsukaima fanfics)

 **Jjpdn:** I mean, it's a fanfic, it can be about anything at anytime :)

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **DiamondBrickZ** chapter 4 . Feb 20

Although the writing is a bit messy and too descriptive in some spots, the interactions, characterization, and plot I love. Keep it up, I love 'worlds collide' stories!

-DiamondBrickZ, a guy reviewing from a Nintendo 3DS at 10:30 in the night

 **Jjpdn:** Oh my god, that's a thing? I didn't know the 3DS had a browser.

The worlds are about to collide harder. Especially during next chapter.

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **BrightRaven -chris210racer** chapter 4 . Feb 22

Wonderful! Happy to see the update. I just knew Yang would do something like that. And Ruby is fine. My literary theory senses tell me so.

 **Jjpdn** : Let's see what you think of part 2 then.

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **djmegamouth** chapter 4 . Feb 22

I'm confused about the stuff currently happening in beacon and the robots. Were those supposed to be Celestial's

 **Jjpdn** : Nope, don't think I'm mentioning Celestials in this fic. The robots are actually inspired from Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and have to do with time travel stuff. Yang basically screwed up the timeline.

 **-/-/-/-/-/-**

 **MageTGM** chapter 4 . Mar 5

Ruby's Crescent Rose? Then where is Ruby? I am more of a Ruby centered story fan.

 **Jjpdn** : Part 2 is all Rubes! Wait, no, I'm wrong. All Weiss. Also wrong. Mostly Weiss.

 **Path:** Make up your mind!


	6. Chapter 5: Shattered Part 2

**Shattered**

 **A/N (V1.1: September 9, 2019): IMPORTANT ADDITIONS.**

 **A/N: I forgot to mention, when I uploaded this chapter, that you can check the progress of the next chapter on my profile!**

 **As you can expect from the first named chapter… it is gonna be a wild ride.**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Why was the world so unfair?

Blake poked at the sand as she looked over the landscape. She was sitting at the top of the village's hill, overlooking the surrounding lands.

Who had made this world where good deeds weren't always rewarded, and even sometimes punished?

Who made life so weak and precious that to desecrate it all you had to do was will it?

The girl had come up here after 'Twony' had spoken with everyone. After confirming the date, he had declared that he had come from the future. A bleak future, where half of life in the universe was turned to dust. And didn't that sound familiar? Back on Remnant, the exact same thing had happened. She had to investigate these 'Infinity Stones'.

After all, space travel technology was still way off on Remnant due to their fixation on dust power. What if somewhere else in the universe, there were another set of Infinity Stones, and someone had snapped away half their universe as well? Or maybe Remnant was just another planet in this universe?

A moment of thinking later, she scratched that idea. It didn't make sense. Their universes' laws of physics didn't match at all, so the chances of these Infinity Stones also existing in Remnant or that Remnant was just a planet in this universe were slim. So, how come even her universe got partially dusted then?

The real problem was that she had no idea how interdimensional travel worked. How were the universes related? Was there a great multiverse where every decision she made spawned off two new ones? Or was it a series of randomly generated realms in which there was a chance that there was an exact copy of her somewhere? She had no idea. Therefore, she decided to abandon this line of inquiry.

The Infinity Stones weren't the only reason she had come up here to think, and no, she wasn't running away from her problems as Tony had jokingly suggested. She had two other things to think about: Twonie's completely mind boggling time travel, and what she wanted to do now.

First item on the list: Twonie.

Her eye twitched. She curled up into a fetal position, pushed her head into her legs, and moaned out her suffering over the last day. Her ears twitched in agitation.

 _Seriously? Twonie?! That's the worst name I've ever heard!_

Finally done expressing her exasperation, the girl lifted up her head and stared at the sunrise. Then, she calmly contemplated the time traveler's situation.

Twonie's existence was perplexing. Was it possible that all souls existed at the same time? Just how does 'accidentally' pulling too hard even resurrect a dead man from the future? It didn't make any shred of sense. However, since Tony wasn't done with testing out how her aura works with the laws of this world, she decided to also wait for results on that.

...still, time travel?

Urgh! All she needed was more information. Right now, the magic system was too soft!

In her books, there were two types of magic systems: hard and soft. A hard magic system deals with magic like it has rules, while soft magic does whatever it wants. An example of the first would be technology, or aura, while soft magic was more like that book series Sajiao showed her - Hairy Peppers or something.

So, all she had to do was to get Tony to figure out how her aura interacts with this world, and a lot of things would be clear to her.

That left the last item on her list to think about: What the heck had Ruby and Yang done?!

Ruby would never abandon her beloved scythe, and the blood on the weapon told Blake that the two weren't separated willingly. Yang must have been so worried. That must be why Ruby's sister had left the scythe with the cultists - she refused to call _them_ a religion - to search for her with.

Blake would search for Ruby as Yang had asked. The faunus girl was just as worried by the weapon shards' implications as her blond teammate.

...And as for Yang. There was no way she could have commited murder. Not Yang, the ever so happy and upbeat girl. The same girl who would drag her out to the loudest places at night where she couldn't read, and force her to dance... It was unthinkable. And yet now, Yang was the one who didn't want Blake to find her?

What had happened while Blake was gone?

"Ms Belladonna!"

The girl leapt gracefully onto her feet. "Yinsen?"

The older man had walked up the stairs looking for her. He looked serious. "We've got a problem."

Blake didn't like the sound of that at all.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

The two of them rushed down the carved stone stairs on the face on the hill to meet with the others. When they arrived in Yinsen and Sajiao's dining room, everyone else was talking animatedly, including Yron.

"You didn't take away the ignition spark?"

"The helicopter has three backups!"

"More importantly, did Ms. Belladonna not tie him well enough?"

Blake easily figured out what was wrong. "What happened to the flying contraption?!" she asked urgently.

"Gone," Tony, who was sitting at the dining table with Yinsen and Twonie, replied nonchalantly. Seeing her expression, he added, "Don't worry. We can always build a new one."

Blake ignored the outrageous statement. "I thought you removed crucial parts from the machine to prevent anyone from using it."

The man hummed without a worry. He didn't even look at her, focusing on some kind of triangular machinery before him on the table. "It's military spec, made by Stark Industries, twenty years old. It's armed with two autocannons that fire twenty millimeter shells at one thousands rounds per minute and two M-10 Javelin pods that can carry any kind of Warj class missiles. Reinforced with armor strong enough to survive machine rifle fire and struts so well built even pre-collapse Germany would have kissed my ass to get one beam. And let me ask you."

Tony had everyone's attention.

"You think I built all that so that it can be taken down in five minutes by a saboteur?"

"A stray bullet killing the pilot?" Yinsen suggested.

"Co-pilot, and has auto-pilot equipped with state of the art, for its time, targeting protocols."

"A bomb in the engine?" Yron, who was also there, sitting on a rock stool in a corner, gave his two cents.

"Has a redundant backup that magnetically controls the rotors. Won't go as fast, but will keep it flying."

"Right, but what if nature calls?" Twonie added his two cents.

Tony lifted up an antenna to inspect it for damage. "Certain waste fluids can be biochemically modified as primer for certain compounds, allowing the helicopter to become partially self-sufficient in ammunition and fuel if a living organisms provides their excretions."

Yinsen sighed. "Stark, you weaponized the bathroom?"

"My clients told me they wanted material to fight a 'total war'." The genius took a sip from a cup of coffee. "I was twenty years old," he said, as if it explained anything.

"I hope all that genius didn't make you forget to make a key to it." Blake flatly said.

Tony returned it with a look of his own. "I ain't securing an invincible military marvel with a suburban house key and lock."

Elder Yron laughed. "You've secured it with fingerprint sensors equipped with heartbeat detectors?"

"No, it has to be a DNA tester." Yinsen affirmed.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Stark didn't make a whole Da Vinci code for it. You would have," Sajiao told her husband.

"That wouldn't be a bad second choice… A religious scavenger hunt brings out the best in everyone, unless you are in Europe and are in the dark ages. No, my security was much more sophisticated." He took another sip. "It's a little dance."

"What?"

He put down his cup and the triangular machine. He stood up. "My little teapot, short and spout…" He made the corresponding pose, where one of his arms was the spout, and the other, the handle. "...and then the camera would scan your iris and your body language. You would be surprised at how many people think all it took was a funny dance, since at first I told nobody that I figured out iris scanning at that range. Not a secret anymore, of course."

Blake wasn't sure what she was expecting. "It certainly wasn't enough to stop it from getting stolen." She jabbed.

"Eh," Tony didn't wince, "Someone likely just sold it to them."

"That's not any better," insisted Blake "Since you are the one that sells those things!"

"Could be second hand, I heard those thrift shops' got some nice deals on fridays. Look, at the end of the day, I don't sell to terrorists, especially ones after my head. Hey, how did the pilot boy Houdini his way out, anyways?"

Blake twitched. "I don't know!" she glared "I used two different ropes and the best knot I knew!"

Sajiao voiced the strangeness of that statement. "Ms. Belladonna, why does a schoolgirl like you know how to tie a person up?"

"..." As an advocate of no-killing, she had to learn to disable her unconscious victims during her missions. Blake couldn't say that she was an ex-terrorist, obviously. And it was obviously not because of the expertly written scenes of her favorite book, Ninjas of Love. Her mind went blank. "...it was part of a recreational course at school?" Wasn't there these 'escape room' things?

There was general silence as the five people that made out the girl's audience came to different but similarly condemning conclusions.

Tony faked a cough. "Er, awkward?"

Blake, seeing everyone's expressions, ran what she said through her head again. _Recreational course._ Her cheeks went red. "...I-It's not what you think!"

Yinsen smiled. "Ah, that you took a well-prepared self-defense course in the past that takes in account of what to do with the assaulter after disabling him or her?"

 _Thank god for Yinsen!_

"Y-Yes! Anyways, he couldn't have escaped unless he ripped off all the skin on his wrist and hands! Maybe somebody released him?"

"Nobody here would risk their own lives doing so!" Yron said, feeling insulted in their stead.

The older Tony decided to step in. "Kids, settle down, not the time for blame pushing. We need a mode of transportation. The Infinity Stones have priority."

"Like I said, I can make one. Give me a month."

Yinsen raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Where are you going to get all the industrial machinery and engineers?"

"Yeah, no need, they ain't worth one Stark, nevermind two." Tony replied.

"...if you are so certain, Stark, then you can also have our daughter's room for your workshop - she doesn't have many things. You can most likely also have one of the garages, if Elder Yron permits…" Yinsen looked at the robbed elderly man, who nodded in response.

"Daughter?" The older Tony asked, his surprise only showed a bit on his face. Blake was the only other one who was surprised, since it looked like the younger Tony already knew. They must have talked about it during their stay as prisoners.

"Did we not mention her? She lives with my wife's family in their village. Won't be back for a while. Her grandparents dote on her much too much."

"Not as much as you did, she's such a little daddy's girl!" the mother coo-ed.

Blake, on the other hand, was a bit agitated. What was Tony doing? This was no time to be playing around and acting arrogant. She voiced her thoughts in a slightly more polite way… though not by much.

Yinsen, like always, was the peacekeeper. "If you do not trust his word, then trust mine. I confirm that I bore witness to his abilities. His arrogance comes from his immense talent, Ms. Belladonna."

"Then what about the microchips and precise parts? Bullheads - a type of vehicle we used - are built out of tens of thousands of carefully manufactured parts. Even if you could miraculously know how to put them all together, it's impossible that somehow all those parts are coincidentally located in a pile of old toasters!" Blake was about to pull her hair out.

"That's more words than I heard you say in the last day." Tony put his tools down and stood up. "Hey, Yinsen, help me, will you? And kid, see this and you'll have no doubt!"

The faunus girl eyed the triangular object, trying to figure out what it was.

"What do you need help with?" The older engineer asked cautiously. He shared a glance with Blake.

"Just place the Wobbegong Mark One on my back. It'll do the rest."

Everyone else in the room watched in silence as Yinsen stood up from his seat and picked up the strange device. "...the Wobbegong?" the man tried out the name. It was about the size of a basketball, but shaped like a triangular prism that was tilted towards one side. The surface was dull silver and extraordinarily smooth, while the bottom was filled with mechanical parts that were sticking out.

"Yeah, yeah, do it. The bottom is supposed to face my back, by the way."

Yinsen did so.

The moment the mechanical device was placed in the vicinity of Tony's back, it burst into life. Mechanical tendrils cut through the cloth he was wearing and wrapped themselves around his body, securing the device in place. The metal belts tightened, making Tony grunt. It certainly didn't look very comfortable. Then, the sharp edges smoothened themselves and the object itself became thinner, becoming like… the rudder of a boat? Or something? A bright orange light also lit up at the base of Tony's neck before then fading.

"Oh my," Sajiao exclaimed. "Is it a jetpack?" Her wrinkled eyes seemed to sparkle.

Blake glared at her. _Don't encourage him,_ she tried to telepathically say.

"Better." Tony replied. "Its a shark fin!"

…

Yinsen's palm hit his face. The older Tony snorted. Sajiao covered her mouth. Yron decided the ceiling was hilarious.

" _...a shark fin so that I can tease those asian commies…"_ Blake remembered Tony saying. Her brain stalled.

Should she be angry? It wasn't exactly rude… Should she be exasperated? Maybe, but she was more concerned with -

"Why, Stark?" Yinsen groaned, voicing everyone's concerns. "Why?" They were even in a desert, the fin couldn't even be used for its original purpose!

"Honestly? I was curious about how it felt to have an extra part. Its connected to my neural system, so I can..." Tony's face tightened in concentration and the fin on his back twitched left and right.

...that was a reason, alright. Blake sighed, but then slowly gave a small smile as she realized something.

In this world, faunus traits weren't something to be ashamed of. Nobody in the room regarded her with distaste and there would be no one that was enslaved because of animalistic traits. Of course, there were other problems, like racism against other humans, which sounded completely crazy to her. At that thought, her smile disappeared. Still, it was nice to have faunus traits be appreciated for once… even if it was just as a joke.

"Aw! You look so sad, dear! Have a hug from a poor elderly woman!"

Blake hissed her complaints.

Tony sat back down with his new equipment. "Your wife's quite lively."

"She just misses our daughter," Yinsen replied. "She used to do the same thing to her."

Yron suddenly slapped the table, making a loud noise. Everyone's attention moved to him. "Now, if you are all done clowning around, we have important matters to get to." He told everyone seriously. "With the helicopter having escaped, the Al Faath will know where Stark is. We need to notify the other villages to be on guard for an attack. They'll be looking to get him back."

"I volunteer." Tony raised his hand as if he was an elementary student who had a question for the teacher. Blake was taken back, she didn't know he was so noble. Could he feel guilt for endangering all those people? Her first impression of him really was wrong. She really needs to stop and think more. "I need parts to finish my fin."

...oh.

"And the transportation, of course. I used up the remainder of your broken toasters and scrapped a communication relay for the fin. Can't do that without parts - did you just throw your bow at me, kid?!"

The elder ignored the byplay. "My lady, you should go too. I heard the Goddess of Light had also made a sect in Aywarah just for you. You should meet with them." Blake's ears drooped. "Yinsen, you can be their guide. You can take the chance to visit your daughter. I will prepare our defenses. And… Twonie, you can get up to date with our library."

A little bit of complaining and discussion later, everyone agreed with their roles. As everyone left to prepare, Blake kept an eye on Tony's retreating back.

A complicated web of loyalties? On the surface, he seemed like a simple man. He liked working with his hands and was a genius. Didn't care too much about what others thought of him. Quite arrogant, and liked poking people's buttons with no regard to consequences. Or was it that he knew that whatever consequences there were, they wouldn't even slow a man like him down?

Blake shivered. Powerful men made powerful allies, she had told herself yesterday. But the problem was that powerful men didn't get to be powerful because of just luck. They were smart, and a lot of times, had their own agenda. Was Tony really just playing around? Everyone had laughed off his shark fin, but did any of them know what it really was? Behind that nonchalant facade, what was he planning?

Was she just paranoid?

She looked at the other Tony, the older one, who was also staring at the younger Tony's back. Blake couldn't tell what he was thinking either.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

This wasn't his past.

Tony instantly knew that when he saw Yinsen and his wife, alive and well. From what he remembered, Yinsen's family had died in one of the many conflicts that plagued Afghanistan in his timeline.

The Al Faath were another thing that was different. They were more organized. In his time, they were just scattered terrorists.

Lastly, the technology level was much higher. To Tony's trained eye, many of the younger Tony's creations could only be explained by using his nano-tech. No amount of intelligence can fill that gap. As the cat girl - and wasn't that another weird thing - had exclaimed, the many parts that made up the many devices he had made required large factories and machinery to construct. Precise parts like circuits and motors were not things a mere human could make with just his hands. However, with nano-tech, basic materials were able to be constructed from raw materials without the help of large machinery.

So, was this some kind of alternate universe? Probably, if the cat girl's story is to be believed. Then, the question is, how similar? Hearing about the North American Union and the domination of Russia, it sounded like a completely different one.

Tony though, wasn't so sure.

The chances that Tony and Yinsen both exists in a different universe was minimal. The chances that there was also a Tony, CEO of another Stark Industries, who also makes weapons, and who also got kidnapped by terrorists, then got saved by Yinsen? Astronomical, even if his younger self's personality is more wild. Unless… their universes were not just similar, but actually the exact same till one single major diverging change.

That's why he was going to read up some books in Yinsen's small collection, instead of directly going to help his younger self to help them escape the desert and then go look for Infinity Stones. He needed to know what was different.

He took a book from the shelf. "The Great Guide to History" it read on the front page and was decorated with childish depictions of the Earth and its different peoples. He quickly flipped through it.

His eyes locked on one thing.

"1962: Cuban Missile Crisis."

Why was something like that in a children's history book?

His mind was quicker than his hands though, and a bunch of pages flipped by. He stopped flipping and was about to go back when his eyes locked onto a line written in large cartoonish font.

"On our planet Earth, there are 1 BILLION people alive! That's enough people to…"

Where did six billion go? Or maybe, it really was a different planet Earth completely? He started again from the very beginning of the book.

"Prehistory…"

"Dinosaurs…"

"Romans…"

"World War II…"

No, it was all the same… until -

"1947: The Sinking of Japan."

Disappearance of the Japanese islands, devastation on numerous coasts, affecting trading to this day, death number said to be higher than even the wars themselves. Cause: unknown.

What?

The war didn't end with two nukes. No, it was something much more deadly, something that destroyed a whole island, two years later than the war should have ended.

Tony ran the numbers through his head.

The size of Japan is about five hundred kilometres times eighty kilometres. What was something that could remove that from the Earth? Ah.

The meteor that scientists assumed wiped out the dinosaurs blew a crater 180 kilometres wide. If the size of that was increased, then it could also wipe out Japan. But that didn't make sense, since if it was that big of an explosion, it would have wiped out everybody else too. Instead, it had only decimated coastal cities. Some kind of concentrated blast, without as big of a shockwave and firestorm? What could do that? Not even one hundred Hulks could do that much damage.

He idly considered one hundred Hulks carrying Hulk-sized shovels and relocating Japan.

Maybe… the power stone? His eyes widened. No, if it was, then someone would have kept using it. Whoever had such a weapon would have ruled the world by now. If he could use it once, why not twice? It wasn't like the fact that using the power stone would kill a normal human was a problem. Look at the Japanese kamikazis and suicide bombers.

Tony decided to read on.

Some time of peace, and rebuilding… then -

Fall of 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis.

From what Tony remembered, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a two week long confrontation between the US and the USSR. It happened because the US had discovered that the USSR had been planting ballistic nuke launchers in Cuba. So, why had this become so important?

November 11, 1962: The Winter War starts.

The Cold War's beginning date was strongly debated by scholars due to it being not an official war. So, it was strange to see a date be touted as the official start -

It wasn't a cold war, Tony realized as he read on.

It was a massacre.

The cartoonish pictures hid a cruel reality.

His eyes stared at the list of casualties of the war. It wasn't just people who died anymore. _It was cities and countries._

Great Britain. France. New York, US. Moscow, USSR. Hong Kong.

Big names, all listed under 'Destroyed' in a thick bubbly font that was quite out of place, surrounded by even more commonly known names. Washington, US; Berlin,Germany… What the hell? Was it the power stone indeed?

His eyes glanced at the next page. Then, a four year long winter?

It quickly dawned on him.

 _It was a nuclear winter!_ _They couldn't have... The idiots!_

That didn't make any sense. The world had agreed to not use nuclear weapons since their use would guarantee the destruction of the world. Instead, nuclear weapons were used as a deterrent against other countries. "If you use nukes or invade, I use nukes, and then we all die. So don't." This was known as the 'Mutually Assured Destruction' military doctrine. Everyone learns that in high school, don't need to be a genius to know about it.

So, what could push a country to risk destroying humanity as a whole?

Many answers to that question came to Tony's rapid mind, but he pushed them all aside for now. He flipped a few pages to get a look at what had happened afterwards.

"1963: Wakanda's Grand Opening."

"1965: United States of America Fights the Second Civil War."

"1966: The USSR Goes on Vacation Overseas."

"1960's: The Robotic Revolution."

Robotic Revolution? A robot uprising? Tony skimmed the first few lines underneath the title.

No, it was a major boom in robotics technology that started in the USSR. In the book, there were many illustrations of machines that Tony could only call futuristic - they were things that only he had in his own lab! But this book was saying that they were mass produced in the 1960's? How?!

His eyes read over the results, and widened even more. Over the next decade, the USSR had basically solved housing and food shortages. They were even able to offer it for free, excluding transport or extra labor.

It was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. It was like somebody miraculously brought every single modern technique and gave it to feudal Japan. A major technological leap that could not be explained by anything except the outrageous.

He closed the book. A children's book will not offer any further insights than just the surface. He left it on the ground, then looked for another book that could explain the situation better.

He skipped over quite a few foreign language books, including quite a few that were in some chinese or japanese dialect, before coming across a book that stood out from all the others.

The spine was hardcover, black and glossy. No fancy designs. There was even no title. Compared to all the other books which were worn and dusty, it was like a diamond in the rough.

Curious, Tony took it out and opened it. A piece of paper fell from the book to the dusty ground. He picked it up.

"To a friend's friend… sort of. -R.R." He read out loud.

Strange. He filed the information underneath his mental 'random trivia' binder and flipped to the first page in the book. It was a diary.

Tony was about to put it back when he saw the name on the bottom. _O. Stane_.

Oh, it was a journal. But Obadiah Stane did _not_ keep journals. Or at least, to Tony's knowledge. Better question - why would someone like Yinsen have a random person's journal? Especially since that person was on the other side of the world?

 _To a friend's friend… sort of. -R.R._

Tony's sharp eyes glossed over every other book in the library. They were all worn, though only some were dusty. So, it wasn't just his current shelf that were in that condition. This book, however, seemed completely new.

Maybe it wasn't even Stane's, Tony rationalized. It could be somebody else who shares Stane's family name that Yinsen knows, like a cousin. Realizing that, Tony quickly read through it. It didn't even come to his mind that he shouldn't be reading someone's journal.

It was the second in a series, and covered about a twenty year period from 1968-1990. By a stroke of absurd luck, the writer was very interested in world politics. Tony read about different political tales that he wasn't even aware of and found the analysis surprisingly in depth. In a way, that strangely reminded Tony of Obadiah, who also had an obsession with that kind of thing. Maybe it ran in the Stane bloodline, or the name?

Finally an hour later, he found what he was looking for.

"...looking back, the Winter War was not a surprise. The USSR's sudden technological superiority sent them leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world and allowed them to build an arsenal that easily rivaled the US. Stalin merely seized the opportunity."

Seized the opportunity of what? Decimating human kind? The death toll during Stalin's rule was already insane. The dictator had no qualms about sacrificing human lives if his country could come out on top at the end. Tony's eyes focused on the words 'seized the opportunity'.

Tony knew he was missing something. One of his assumptions about this situation was wrong.

End of WWII with some kind of bomb dropped on Japan. Check.

Nuclear warheads. Check.

USSR vs US cold war. Check.

Mutually Assured Destruction. Not checked.

What was he assuming? He looked over his mental list again.

Japan was hit by two nuclear bombs in his timeline. Here, it was something else that ended the war.

No, that shouldn't affect anything, since the USSR already knew about the nukes being built. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not 'big reveals'. Then, over time, the US and the USSR had built up nuclear arsenals - over time!

What if by 1962 their arsenals were not big enough to guarantee Mutually Assured Destruction, only decimation in which one nation could still come out on top? No, from what Tony remembered, by the Cuban Missile Crisis the world was already at risk of total annihilation.

But didn't the Sinking of Japan decimate coastal cities?

Tony grabbed the children's history book off the ground and rushed to the page about the Sinking of Japan. He confirmed that the US' western coast line was wiped out, plus many of the bases they had in the Pacific. The USSR, on the other hand, had much smaller loses since their naval presence was not as big on that side of the world.

If the United States had free reign, their superior industrial power could have pumped out much more nukes than the USSR. However, with the cost of humanitarian aid for so much of their people in comparison to the USSR, the two major countries' nuclear arsenal could end up quite different than the one in Tony's world. When the US had an advantage, they were still bound by morality and the checks and balances. However, if the USSR had a nuclear advantage, and MAD had not come into effect...

 _...no qualms about sacrificing human lives…_

"Twonie, - did you really want to be called that - the others are leaving, do you want to say goodbye?" A woman's voice called out from the doorway.

Tony shut the children's book and put it back where it belonged without a word. He left the black book open though, wanting to come back straight to it. He did not like this new alien world that it painted.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

There was a time when Weiss Schnee believed her father loved her. That was two years ago.

The Schnee family, of the nation of Atlas, had always been strict. Their position as one of, if not the, most powerful family in Atlas forced each member to become a pinnacle of nobility. Talented, knowledgeable, polite, but most of all, disciplined.

What those terms meant were different when you were the Schnee family, due to their long and glorious history.

Talented: Well versed in three different instruments and possessing at least one outstanding ability.

Knowledgeable: Memorization of the one hundred and fifty ancestral poems of the Atlas pillars families. High grades, if not the highest. Completely understanding of the Atlas political landscape and the current - and past - positions of the pillar families.

Polite: As a Schnee, politeness did not stop at saying "please". It meant all sorts of things from how a person sat to how a person walked. It meant adhering - no - it meant _excelling_ at social etiquette, knowing the proper and exact conduct for general and specific individuals.

Discipline: A Schnee keeps his or her dignity at all times, no matter the situation.

Talented, knowledgeable, polite, and disciplined. This is what a Schnee is.

Her father drilled all that into her from a young age. Hours and hours of violin practice. Hours and hours of singing lessons. Hours and hours of studying mathematics, physics, and all sorts of subjects with tutors. Of course, a Schnee was also disciplined, which meant taking a predetermined, perfectly calculated amount of breaks for maximum efficiency as a whole. If she met his standards, then she would continue to the next step. If she didn't… well, she didn't want to remember the punishments.

Now that she was older, she would look back at that steadfast dedication of her father's to the Schnee tradition and think it to be strange, considering that her father had married into the family.

No matter.

The important thing was that her father was strict and emotionless, but had reasons for it. As a Schnee, their family's prestige requires each member to meet high standards, less they shame the rest. They could not afford to be normal, for they were an example for the rest of the nation. But little Weiss thought there was more than that.

After all, what father would not want his daughter to succeed? All the pain, all the suffering, it must have been just a way for her father to express his love and his desire to see her flourish. And so she worked, all with the hope that at the end she would make him proud.

Her work was not without rewards.

Years later, Weiss Schnee could sing, play the violin, and play the piano. Her special talent… well, she'll say singing, but since that doubled up with the instruments, it put her at a disadvantage in that category. A close second would be her combat abilities, but her skill with the rapier and the Schnee glyphs paled in comparison to her older sister.

In terms of being knowledgeable, Weiss Schnee… did ok. She only memorized one hundred of the poems, and only did well in school. However, it could be overlooked since her knowledge of the other nobles was quite in depth. The young girl knew every one of the fifty pillars by face and name, and could recite outstanding achievements of each and every one. If asked about how she could remember so many people, she would humbly say that anyone could if they attended as many tea parties as she had.

Weiss Schnee was quite the polite lady.. Her tea drinking posture was perfected over a whole decade of learning. Her speech was sophisticated and she knew enough things to allow for polite conversation with anyone for hours.

Finally, Weiss Schnee was also disciplined as she could be at her age. No bad habits except for a minor sweet tooth. Punctual and strict towards herself. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, she was just a child. A child whose mother was an alcoholic, whose father was cold as ice, whose little brother fought for her position as heir, and whose dear older sibling ran away, leaving her responsibilities to Weiss.

Complicated feelings towards her family situation caused cracks to sometimes form in her carefully crafted shell of dignity. Some days, she would sit in her room and stare outside at the city far below the hill their mansion rested on. She imagined herself as one of the common citizens, working without the pressure of a nation and living without the threat of noble life. Then, Klein, her butler, would come in and kindly remind her that their lives are not so simple either. Their very peace depended on the decisions of families like hers. Weiss already knew that, but she needed to hear it from someone who cared. She would then stop resting on the windowsill and get on with her daily routine, believing that somewhere at the end of her long road she'll be rewarded.

That's what she thought.

"Your father calls you to his office, my lady."

Weiss looked up from her textbook. That was strange. Her father rarely bothered her during her studies, believing it to be of utmost importance. Even when the White Fang terrorists had sneaked into their home, all her father had done was quietly post more guards at her door and only shocked her with the news during dinner. She winced at the memory. Following that, her brother had used her momentary break in demeanor - she was too surprised - to hurt her image of the perfect Schnee.

The short-statured girl nodded and sorted her desk. She followed the attendant to the hallway after pushing in her chair.

The Schnee manor was as grandiose as it was splendid. Large paintings covered the walls and fancy designs covered the ceiling. The lights were imported from Vacuo's finest glass artisans. Weiss passed them by as if they were everyday sights, which in a way, was true.

She arrived before her father's study. The attendant who had fetched her knocked on the large exquisite ironwood door.

The door was opened by a second attendant inside, who was given permission by a single nod from her father. Weiss entered.

Her father's study had shelves and shelves of books and cabinets. They stood as high as the ceiling, and the servants in charge of them had to use hover technology in order to clean and organise them. In the center of the room was her father, who was sat behind a surprisingly orderly desk for a busy man like himself.

Jacque Schnee was an old man, dressed in a blue tux that was worth at least three bullheads. Unlike the rest of his family, his white hair was due to his age and not genetics. He didn't look up from the report he was reading.

The attendant who had opened the door closed it behind her and bowed. "Your daughter as you have ordered, Mr. Schnee."

Weiss curtsied. Perfectly bent knees, forearms just far enough from her body to showcase her grace without seeming awkward.

Her father didn't even acknowledge her presence.

If Weiss was not taught so well by her tutors, she would have sweated under her father's presence. There was something terrifying about the man. Even though he kept his voice calm, his every step and word were silent threats promising untold punishments to any who disobeyed him.

Her father flipped a page.

Weiss made sure that she didn't fidget. Her whole body was still, but lacked the tension that would betray her inner feelings. Her pale blue eyes stared with purpose, and without fear.

Internally, she was trying to figure out the reason as to why her father had asked for her. Some kind of news, maybe? Had something happened to Winter? Her older beloved sister was in the military and was in constant danger due to the White Fang attacks, after all.

"You are dismissed, Caitlyn, Jacob." Her father commanded without looking up.

The two attendants bowed. They left the room, leaving her alone with her father.

The room was quite chilly, Weiss realized. Cold. Unfeeling. She forced her body under control and extended her meager aura to shield her from the cold.

This wasn't good though. Her father would only send the attendants out if he was going to do something he didn't want others to know of. The last time he did that, her mother was disgraced and sent into the inner sanctum to drink her life away. Was he going to do something similar to her? Did Weiss anger her father? What had happened?

None of her thoughts showed on her face.

"Weiss." Finally, her father put his report down and looked up. Their pale blue eyes met. Neither betrayed anything with their gaze. Still, they watched each other for any movement.

"Yes, father?" She stood at attention, like a soldier in front of a superior.

"Are you happy here?" His eyes scanned her for any reaction.

To any other daughter, a question like that would have been from a concerned father asking about their welfare. To Weiss, it was like a sword, aiming to strike her the moment she showed any weakness.

"Yes, father."

It was an odd question. Her father had never cared about sensibilities. It could not be for politeness, since there was no one else in the room with them. What was his angle? Weiss wracked her brains for lessons that could be applied right now.

Once again, no reaction on the surface for the both of them.

"I have heard that Vale is more beautiful at this time of year."

It was summer. In Atlas, that meant melting snow and mud. In Vale, it meant sunny weather, blooming flowers, and festivals.

"Yes, father." Another useless question. Or was it? Is it some kind of trap? Why ask about Vale? There wasn't anything interesting there, in comparison to Atlas, except Beaco -

Weiss' cheek twitched by the smallest of amounts.

"My good friend Engen told me about a very interesting matter, today."

No. She couldn''t have.

"He told me his daughter had heard something… unpleasant… from you."

Ice. Cool, shimmering, and fragile. Or was it glass? Weiss felt like it. _That… that… Engen dolt! She and her mouth!_

"Would you like to clarify this rumour?"

His very fury was like the icy blizzards of Atlas. It did not burn, it did not rage. Instead, the crippling cold froze Weiss in her tracks and suffocated her underneath its weight. Without a change in tone or body language, he could terrify a man to an early grave.

Weiss knew exactly why he was angry.

Atlas had its own academy for huntresses, called Atlas Academy, and it was just as prestigious as the Beacon Academy in Vale. The only reason she would want to go all the way to Vale would be to run away from Atlas, from his influence. Now, that by itself wasn't a big deal. The problem was that others have heard of her desire.

Weiss Schnee, of the ancient Atlesian Schnee bloodline, didn't want to go to her own nation's school. What did that say about Atlas Academy? Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Corporation, didn't want to stay in Atlas where her family had the most influence. What does that say about her family?

Weiss was not stupid. She would never make a mistake like so. However, she did have her moments of weakness, and the Engen family took advantage of it. She made a mistake. Though, if she could go to Beacon, without strings attached...

"It was merely in jest, father."

"So you admit to it?"

A Schnee does not retreat from a battle not yet lost.

"Merely a jest. I assure you, father."

He stared at her intensely, greatly bothering her.

"I see."

He did. This wasn't over.

"Father, is that all?"

He didn't answer her for a while. Then, he said, "I would like to know how your combat studies are going."

He knew exactly how they were going. He had reports about her progress from her tutors.

"I am doing well, father. I have graduated from the Hollow Dendrite to the Sectored Dendrite level in Atlesian fencing. My Schnee glyph studies are progressing well, but summoning is at a standstill."

"That is adequate. I would like to test you, Weiss."

Test her?!

"In the old days, Schnee nobles coming of age had stricter requirements to pass into adulthood." That… wasn't wrong. But, he couldn't- he couldn't be talking about the - "I believe a Clockwork Knight from those trials would be enough to challenge you?"

Weiss froze.

The Clockwork Knights were an old Schnee invention, outdated but still just as powerful as many of Atlas' current mechanical troops. They were huge robots operated by code written on metal drums, similar in concept to music boxes. However, they were discontinued due to their immense cost. One knight was worth a half-ton of gold.

The important part was that they were almost invulnerable. History books recount numerous Schnee youths who were injured or killed during the trials. Was this her punishment?

Weiss couldn't shy away though, or even voice protest. It would be taken as a lack of confidence in her own skills.

"It would be my honor." She put on her best smile.

"I shall schedule it in three days. Klein?"

The old servant came into the room and bowed.

She had to win.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

She had won.

The thrill of victory had stayed with her even as the doctors tended to her wounds. There was technically just one, the cut over her right eye.

She kept composed as required and thanked the congratulations offered by nobles who had come to watch her performance. Perfect poise, plus just enough humility.

"Your father beckons you, my lady." The crowd around her parted to reveal Klein.

Weiss nodded and gave her dust rapier to one of her attendants. She followed her head butler to the balcony where her family sat.

"Weiss. I had no doubt you would succeed. Congratulations on your victory. Your valor will be rewarded."

She curtsied in front of her seated father. It was perfect, even while exhausted. "Thank you, father, for your kind words."

Strangely, he then turned to the crowd. "My daughter had once said that Atlas was the greatest nation in the world. In this fight, she had shown both the dedication and valor of an Atlesian and the might of our greatest minds. Can you not agree?"

The crowd politely clapped. She was, after all, but a seventeen year old girl. Even during the trials, the Schnee youth fought against the Knights in groups.

"Atlas is strong, but we are not alone in the world. The Grimm prey on our people everyday. To survive, we must stand as one with our allies!" He continued. "As part of an exchange program, Weiss Schnee will travel to Beacon Academy as a show of our friendship with Vale. It will be both to expand her horizons and spread the glory of Atlas!"

Weiss blinked at the announcement. What was going on? That was a great reason to save face and to still send her to Beacon. But why? Could her father have actually believed the rumours? She didn't want to go to Beacon! ...well, she didn't entirely want to. Technically?

She inspected her father carefully. Was it just her, or did her father focus on her right side?

The girl thought about it on the private bullhead the whole way back to Schnee manor. However, she was distracted by her little brother along the way, who kept trying to make polite conversation with her. Surprisingly, it seemed like he was trying his best to talk to her for once. Also weird. Whenever their conversation died, Whitley gave them a new subject to talk about. He had never done that before. Not since Winter had left and their mother had tried her hand at drinking herself to death.

The answer came to her when she saw herself in front of the mirror in her room. Her victory against the Knight came at a cost.

She gasped.

The wound over her right eye was not able to be completely healed by even the superior dust medicine that her family could afford. It left a small scar on her otherwise perfect face, like a tainting black mark on a purely white canvas.

For anyone else, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But for a member of the Schnee family…

She wasn't flawless anymore.

For all her life, perfection was the goal, but a mere cosmetic blemish was not a big problem, right? Then, she remembered how her father looked at her after the fight. How he stared at the right side of her face.

Jacque Schnee was never one to react visibly and show his hand. A small part of her hoped that he was horrified that his daughter had gotten a scar, but that just wasn't something her father would do. No, he must have been… disgusted!

Why else would he send her away to Beacon, even after their conversation? He must be sending her there because of his fury! That was more the kind of man her father was. Unwavering and hard. This was her punishment, wasn't it?

...but, wasn't it kind of light?

She turned her head and used her hand to hold her long white hair away to better see her scar. It wasn't that bad, right?

Weiss couldn't think of any other reason for her father to send her to Beacon though. To send his heir so far away was a strange move. That left only Whitley by him.

...or maybe he was making room for Whitley.

Her heart stopped.

Weiss had always known her father was a coldhearted man with standards impossibly high. But would he be the kind of person to use her like a tool then throw her away the moment she showed cracks?

All those years, was she just a tool?

And now, she'll be sent to Beacon, like an exile? Her own supporters were also in Atlas. Leaving meant that Whitley would be able to start building his own base without her people stopping him. That talk in the bullhead, could he have been trying to look for her weaknesses?

"Weiss?"

It was Whitley, outside her door. She didn't want to answer him, but there was something in his voice that made her turn around. It reminded her of their younger days, when they actually felt like brother and sister.

"Yes, come in."

He did, gracefully, like any other Schnee, with confident steps and smooth movements."Are you really going away?"

Was he sad that she was going away? Could it be some remnant of their old sibling bond, still holding barely to existence? She carefully watched his stoic expression.

It couldn't be. Without her here, he was free to do as he liked. He had already chosen his path… a long time ago.

"Yes."

And that was it.

The two of them faced each other in silence.

"I will leave you to your preparation, then." Whitley finally said, without speaking further, and left.

 _What was that about?_

No matter, she needs to stop his plans. She called one of her attendants over.

Weiss Schnee was not defeated yet.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

A year later, the world crashed down around her once more.

When people started turning to dust, she had been distraught. When the Amity Colosseum crashed into Vale, she had been horrified. And then came the Grimm had come, and it wasn't time for feelings anymore. She was still upset by the death and gore they'd seen, however, and all their implications.

Weiss was actually quite happy that Blake was able to escape, though. They've had their disagreements, but the faunus was quite the virtuous girl. Blake's actions were noble even though she didn't act like one, which contrasted well with the two-faced pillar families of Atlas. It was refreshing.

Now, Weiss and the rest of her team had fallen into Beacon's strange depths. They had landed on the concrete ground safely using aura, only to then find themselves before a strange machine.

It was as tall as the ceiling and looked Atlesian-made. Two glass tubes were connected to it, in which one was an unconscious woman and the other, empty. Some kind of medical machine, Weiss guessed.

What was odd was that the headmaster was there, instead of defending Beacon. He stood in front of the machine in his usual grey and green attire, plus his clockwork cane in hand.

"Miss Schnee, Miss Xiao-Long, and Miss Rose, I see. Have any of you seen Miss Nikos?"

He even asked a strange question. "No, headmaster. We were separated in class."

"A shame. My apologies, but time is of essence. Miss Rose! Could you please get into the pod?" He gestured towards the empty glass vessel.

"Eh?" Ruby got up from the ground. As expected, she was hesitant to do so, respected figure or not.

"Do hurry. This is the only way to save Vale, Miss Rose!"

"Er…"

"What are you trying to get my sis to do?!" Yang, on the other hand, was incensed.

The headmaster walked towards them. "This machine will transfer an ancient power to you." He told them calmly. "The power of the maidens."

"That sounds creepy as hell!"

"Miss Xiao-Long, I assure you, there'll be no harm done to Miss Rose. We will all be here to monitor her."

Yang looked ready to say more, but Ruby stepped forward. "If it can save Beacon, I'll do it!" The fifteen year old affirmed with surprising resolve.

Weiss watched as Ruby pushed forward to the pod while Yang tried to stop her. Was this what Klein meant when he said that it wasn't easy being a common folk too? Being just another civilian meant that the people above had all the power over your lives. They could play with you as they want and there was nothing you could do. There was no guarantee that in a moment your peaceful life wouldn't be destroyed.

Here, team RWBY was caught in a battle in which none of them knew what was going on. Why did people suddenly begin to disintegrate? Why did Amity fall? What is this 'maiden' thing Ozpin was talking about? No answers, just authority figures ordering people around. Weiss hated this feeling of powerlessness.

Should she stop Ruby? She honestly didn't know.

During her hesitation, her teammate had already gotten in the pod. The headmaster turned on the machine and all Weiss could do is then wait.

"If that harms even a hair on Rubes' head, I'll…" Yang muttered beside her, and Weiss silently agreed.

The ground rumbled as more of the academy above crumbled down. Dust and small pieces of concrete fell from the hole in the ceiling. There was also the sounds… of a fight?

Weiss turned away from the scene to look above. It was Cinder, the girl who had helped them before! She was fighting against two Nevermores, bare handed, on the floor above.

"Yang? You see that? You want to use the attack we practiced yesterday?"

Yang glanced back at the machine with worry, before deciding to help out instead. She cracked her neck. "Yah, let's go! Freezerburn?"

"Hmph!"

Weiss was never able to hit very hard, due to her slim build. She made up with finesse and the utility provided by her glyphs.

Yang was almost the opposite. Take one of her punches head on and there'll be lots of broken bones. Somehow, though, she still kept a slim build and finesse, allowing her to weave between blows and deliver her knockout potential.

Combined, they made quite the unstoppable team.

Yang took off. Her running was enhanced by Schnee glyphs that appeared beneath her, but not to make her faster. No, these applied a horizontal force so that when Yang jumped onto the wall, she successfully started to run horizontally on it. Her heels dug into the concrete, blasting holes into it, and slowly she got higher with every lap around the room.

The Nevermores noticed it and cawed at her. They ignored Cinder and descended to meet Yang head on, as expected of mindless beasts.

The moment they were within range, Yang used her momentum and leapt at them. She cocked a fist with a blinding grin on her face.

In normal circumstances, it would be the height of foolishness. A human in the air has little mobility in comparison to a bird, putting the person at a disadvantage. This was also why air time in a melee battle was not a good idea. However, this wasn't a normal battle.

Weiss focused and a black glyph appeared beneath the birds. Her creation began spinning quickly but slowed down, like a clock grinding to a halt. In return, the area around it also followed, freezing the Nevermores in mid-air.

"Freezer!" Weiss reported the success of phase one.

"Alright, my turn!" Yang exclaimed. Her hair burst into flames as she activated her berserker mode. "Burn!" And she punched.

Her built up energy was released in one hit. It blast apart the first Nevermore whose body then flattened the second one against the upper Beacon walls. The wall then fell, taking another classroom with it.

The two Nevermores were defeated though.

Yang landed on the basement floor, above Weiss.

"Why…" Huffed Weiss. "...did I agree to call out this attack name again?"

"Cause I needed to know when I was ready to attack. Come on, it sounded cool!" The blond yelled back from above.

"It did not. And you jumped early anyways."

"Come on, Weiss-cream! I knew you could finish it then! I had faith in your skills."

"As if I needed your validation of my abilities." Weiss scoffed.

"Anyways, Cinder, you good?" asked Yang. There was a pause.

Weiss couldn't see from below what was happening.

"Thank you for asking, I am."

Weiss thought Cinder's voice was a bit shaky, which was quite strange. The girl seemed quite composed before, even when they had seen people getting killed.

Yang jumped down with Cinder. "It looks like her aura's shattered and she got scratched up on the back. Did you get sneak attacked?"

"...yes. I leapt to follow you all, but they surprised me as I was descending. Quite unfortunate."

Cinder's red dress was ripped in some places, leaving good amounts of skin exposed. Weiss winced at the scratches. It would be a shame for such beautiful skin to be marred. Thankfully, they looked superficial. Weiss touched her own scar absentmindedly.

"Miss Rose, how do you feel?"

Their attention moved to the headmaster and Ruby. The transfer process had finished. Ruby stepped out of the pod, surprisingly evenly. Yang abandoned Cinder and ran to her side. The older sister fussed over the younger.

Weiss helped Cinder put an arm around her shoulders and helped the wounded girl closer to the rest of her team.

"I'm fine, Yang!" Ruby was embarrassed by her concern, "So, headmaster, how do I use this power… headmaster?"

Headmaster Ozpin blankly stared upwards through the hole in the ceiling and at the sky.

Yang waved her hand in front of his eyes, but he didn't respond. "I think he's bonkers. I knew it the moment he started talking about some maidens."

There was another rumble, and more debris fell around them.

"It's over." The headmaster suddenly stated as if it was fact.

"What?" Weiss asked sharply. "You are giving up?"

"You do not understand. This was not the work of mortals." The headmaster stumbled backwards, as if he was hit with great shock. His cane fell to the ground. "This feeling! I have only felt it once before - the power, the sheer presence, can only be that of a god!" He fell to the ground, hysterical. "Salem, have you won? Are the gods back? Is it the god of light? Or the god of darkness? No, something else!"

"~He is bonkers!" Yang whistled and stepped back.

His eyes widened. "You?! Miss..." He called as he brought his gaze upwards, towards the hole and the vast sky beyond it. Before he could finish, in front of everyone, he disintegrated to dust.

"Him too?!"

"What about the power that could save Beacon?!"

"What's this about gods?!"

Weiss put her foot down. "No matter! The headmaster has fallen victim to whatever this is. What we need to do is to save ourselves now! There's still Grimm above!"

Yang threw her arms up. "How are we getting out of here? The headmaster was crazy and we are surrounded!"

"Yang… are we really going to die here?"

"- I mean there's totally a way! We just gotta find it!"

If it was any other situation, Weiss would have thought the sisters' interaction to be cute. However, it was time to think about their escape route.

Beacon had a fleet of bullheads, but going back up to the ground floor would be suicide. In fact, it was a miracle that more Grimm hadn't found them yet either. The amount of negativity pouring off them was not little.

Weiss looked up through the hole. There were still Grimm flying… but they were crashing into each other? To the white haired girl's eyes, they looked like they were drunk. Or would aimless be a better description? Uncontrolled?

Whatever, the important thing is, they had to find an escape route. Digging? Secret passages?

The answer, however, was much more convenient.

Suddenly, the air beside Yang shimmered. A human sized, red, swirling disk appeared vertically, and out stepped one of the most wanted women in Remnant.

Raven Branwen.

She wore a white red-striped Grimm mask and one of her hands was on her huge dust sword's hilt, sheathed at her side. Her attired was themed black and red, and included a sash and black thigh high stockings. Or boots, Weiss couldn't tell. Fashionable, for a bandit.

The woman gestured at them to follow, before exiting through the portal again. Why was she inviting them?

Weiss looked around to see the reaction of her teammates. Her eyes locked onto Yang, who was completely frozen. The blond girl wasn't the type to be afraid. "Yang, you know her?"

"Mom?" Yang whispered. Before Weiss could ask her further, the blond girl rushed after the portal, followed by Ruby who was just as enthralled.

"Wait!" Weiss called out, but they were already gone. "They must be crazy, following a criminal like tha - "

And out from Weiss' chest sprouted the tip of a dagger.

She stared at her own blood, confused, in-pain, but completely unable to scream. Dazzling, soul-wrenching pain. Her life dripped out from the sides of the wound. Her vision blurred. It was so fast she didn't even hear her aura shatter.

Weiss fell to the ground. It jostled her mortal wound, causing her more pain. She wanted to say something, anything, but liquid filled up her lungs and she even began drowning in her own blood.

Cinder came into her field of vision, with a sad smile. "You saved the wrong woman." And she walked towards the portal, without another glance.

Weiss tried to reach after her. She wanted to ask why. But her strength left her fast. Nothing came out of her mouth but more blood.

Cinder escaped.

Still, she persisted. She dragged her body along the floor and crawled with all her might. She was Weiss Schnee, heiress of the SDC, and she wasn't going to die here! She pushed through the haze of pain, and crawled and crawled.

She had fought her whole life for a position in this world. All her blood and sweat, all her efforts… were they really all for naught? All wasted, for what? She didn't even know why she was dying. Why?

Why, why! Why! Why! Why!

For the first time in many years, Weiss Schnee let her tears flow.

Was she really going to die… without even hearing her father say once that he was proud of her?

But she wasn't dead yet. Weiss Schnee does not give up even on the verge of death. So she crawled. Did the portal look closer?

She was under no illusion that there was medical attention at the other side of the portal. But, no matter how slim the chances were, she had to reach it! At the very least, to warn Ruby and Yang!

The world grew dimmer with every inch she made. Every movement grew heavier. _Almost there!_

...but she wanted to sleep.

A memory came to her.

From back when she was just a young girl. Her father read to her then. She remembered his words - they were harsh, but they were also kind, a coin with two sides - and his warmth…

 _Father… please, where are you?_

Times changed.

Now, her family was cold. Her life, filled with mountains in her path. Did she deserve all the pressure and misfortune? No, she didn't deserve any of this!

Couldn't she just have had a nice normal life, with a loving father, a caring mother, and die in her seventies surrounded by her grandchildren? Why was she born into this?

She was tired.

Couldn't she just close her eyes for a bit? Her eyelids grew heavier. She slowly blinked.

"You shouldn't."

Her eyes snapped open.

Where was she?

There were stars all around her, like the night sky if it had surrounded her. She floated there, in this void, lighter than a feather.

She touched her chest and felt nothing there but smooth skin. Weiss tilted her head down to look, then gasped when she saw that her whole body was translucent, but at least she was still dressed.

"Where are you?" She asked the voice.

"Here."

The girl spun, not even sure how she did it, to face the feminine voice. It came from some kind of cloaked figure, though she couldn't see well due to how it blended in with the background.

Her instincts went back into play. She curtsied - somehow - and introduced herself. "And you are?" She then asked.

"You'll find out in time."

"What if I don't?"

"You will." She (?) affirmed.

There was some silence as the two floated around each other.

"May I inquire about my physical state?" Weiss asked politely.

"You are dead. Just a little, though." The figure answered. "Spiritually, you are in my realm, otherwise known as Helheim. It wasn't originally mine, but now it is. I brought you here."

Weiss had no idea where or what that was. "It's… nice?" She felt quite a bit out of her depth. "Could you please put down that dagger?"

One of the cloaked spirit's wispy tendrils had a glass dagger in hand.

"Well, I don't want it floating around. Don't want it to kill you a second time, you see."

Weiss stared at it. Seeing the weapon that killed her was uncomfortable.

"Is it possible for you to get rid of it?"

"Sure. If you ever want another one, just call me up on my phone."

And that was that for the dagger.

Weiss also ignored the last part about the phone.

"May I ask what will happen now?" What happens after death, anyways? Heaven? Hell? The whole situation was odd.

"How 'bout you come and check out a place?"

"...a place? Not your place, or a house, or a location, but a place?" Weiss carefully questioned.

"A killjoy as always, I see! Just follow me. Careful about where you step, by the way." The figure floated away.

Weiss, not knowing what else to do, did as the mysterious figure asked.

"I said careful where you step!" The figure whined.

The noble girl raised an eyebrow. After all, they were floating. She was about to voice that when, suddenly, she actually tripped.

There were no objects in front of her, just endless stars, and suddenly gravity tugged at her and she fell.

"I told you to be careful!"

There was a sense of vertigo as she accelerated downwards. Faster and faster, until the stars around her were a blur. Weiss wasn't scared though, since she was already dead, just kind of curious at what was happening.

And then she landed on the ground.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **Holy Germania, Balkan Wastelands, 1999 - Five years before Blake's arrival**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Weiss gasped as air filled her lungs. She sucked in as much as she could and breathed out. Then she repeated it in a hurry, hungry for the life giving gas. She had missed doing such a simple action. It made her appreciate it much more.

Her heart beat like a drum in her ears, pushing her blood through her veins. She felt her muscles be oxygenated and her joints relax.

Her eyes opened, to a whole new world.

...the inside of a jail cell?!

First, she checked her own sitting body. It was dressed in rags, but was strangely pristine. Smooth, healthy skin, silky hair, a bit of baby fat on her cheeks. She was alive again! What?

What did tripping have anything to do with _this_?!

She shook her head. It wasn't time to think about that weirdness. Right now, she had more pressing matters. Pressing matters that she could actually deal with. She looked around.

Her cell floor was dirty and the grey concrete walls looked worn. There was some writing etched on the walls, written in ancient Atlesian. In terms of furniture, she had a bed, a desk with a stuffed elephant, and a dirty toilet. She searched everywhere again and only found a roll of toilet paper.

Interesting.

No tools to help her get out, though. She then tried channeling her aura, but only got enough to make a basic shell around her body. That was only about how little she was able to get when she was a child!

"Attention!" Someone called. He wasn't speaking in common, but in ancient Atlesian, a long dead language. A man's voice. Gruff. Forty to fifty years old. Rough voice - overuse? The syllables weren't completely all there - immigrant?

She got up and walked closer to the bars of her cell to take a look outside. The larger room outside was some kind of office. In the far right corner was a desk with piles of paperwork atop, while the walls were stamped with pictures. Strings linked the pictures in different ways, and stick notes were stuck randomly everywhere. It reminded her of a police office.

In the doorway that led into the room was a wide shouldered, imposing man. He was dressed in a navy blue jacket and pants and had a strangely shaped, similarly colored hat on. The man was holding up the door for another.

This other man was just as burly, but much shorter. He was wearing a suit jacket over a dress shirt and dress pants, having wild grey hair and an unshaven chin. There were scars all over his face. In all, Weiss would say he looked like a gangster.

"That's the merch?" The shorter man snickered. "She looks just like a doll!"

This other man also spoke in ancient Atlesian, noted. Did she find herself in the past, or something?

As the two walked closer, Weiss could tell that they were quite large in comparison to her. She never was that tall, but these two men must've been twice her size! Judging by how little her aura was, she wouldn't be able to take them on anytime soon. Still, she stood her ground and tried to remember what she had learned in her ancient languages class.

"Good day, sir." She greeted with a curtsy. Her Atlesian was rough, but it'll have to do.

The two men stopped in front of her, surprised. The shorter man guffawed. "This girl! You found quite the gem!"

The taller man regained his composure and turned to the shorter. "She is an orphan. With that pure white hair and sky blue eyes, I do hope she'll be worth enough that we'll never have to do this again."

"You think?! That combination of colors is so rare! The boys will be rich!" The shorter man stepped into Weiss' personal space. Only the bars separated them.

Weiss didn't step back, even if the man smelled like smoke, and she could stare straight into his crazed eyes. She stood her ground, head raised high.

"You train her or something?"

"No. Now take her off my hands."

"With pleasure! Stick your hands out, girly."

The taller man sighed. "I hope God will forgive us for this."

"He won't forgive me!" The shorter one cackled.

Weiss did so, obediently. The shorter man cuffed her hands together. Then, the older man opened the jail cell and let her out.

Any other girl would have screamed for them to let her go. Or cried. Or spat at them. But this wasn't any normal girl. This was Weiss Schnee.

A lesson from her father surfaced in her mind.

 _Weiss. Listen carefully. If you are ever captured, do not struggle or fight._

 _Why father?_

 _Criminals are like cornered dogs. If you threaten them without the ability to enforce your position, they may lose their temper and harm you. There's no point._

 _But isn't it better to try to run away?_

 _Only if you are certain, then act. Otherwise, if you don't fight, they'll think that they broke you. You'll have to swallow your pride, but it is only temporary. Wait and remember, for one day you will have your revenge._

 _But what if I'm not strong enough?_

 _Make allies. Even with criminals, you'll find ones you can use._

 _What if I can't? It sound so scary!_

 _A Schnee does not say that, Weiss._

 _I'm sorry, father._

 _...to answer your question, this is only in case I'm not there. Else, I will save you._

 _You promise, father?_

 _Of course, my snow angel._

The man brought her to a black car - it wasn't a model that Weiss knew of. He opened the door to the back and pushed her inside, where she stumbled and fell onto the seat. He sat in the driver's seat in the front.

Weiss didn't utter a word of complaint, and sat up. She crossed her legs with great dignity.

"Girl, aren't you scared?" He looked at her from the rear view mirror.

"Yes." Her affirmation was done completely calmly. No fear at all.

The man laughed again, before he started the engine and drove off. "I like you! My name's Klaue. You got one?"

"Weiss."

"That's a fitting name!"

 _Father, doesn't accepting your state of bondage go against the dignity and values of a Schnee?_

 _No, it does not. I ask of you, does Klein not have dignity?_

 _No, he does, father._

 _What about when he bows to us? Does it shame him to do so?_

 _No, it does not, father._

 _He is our servant, but he is more dignified than many Schnee mine directors. To first have dignity, you must know your position. Then, you must exceed at your position, all while entrancing everyone around you with your grace and discipline. Only then can you be dignified. He is the head butler, so he must act like the head butler. You are a Schnee, so act like a Schnee._

 _I see, father._

And Weiss did see. A great deal of suffering lay in front of her, but she would not back down.

Weiss Schnee perseveres, no matter what.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **A/N: Weiss is here, with daddy issues! Things are slowly heating up! Next chapter, we'll have a scene about the Al Faath in pilot boy's point of view, so that the readers can see what Blake and Tony are up against!**

 **BTW, I will note that 'Al Faath' is not a different way to say 'All Faith'. It is referencing something else that you may or may not get.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **djmegamouth** **chapter 5 . Apr 27**

So it wait it's a full blown AU of the mcu. Not just earlier in time but a whole different timeline with history being different. That explains a lot of things and removes a lot of my problems with the story.

 **jjpdn:** I hope this chapter explained how its AU. Basically, Yang came in, tried to do some good and messed up. All within the "time travel" aspect of this fic.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **Kalaong** chapter 5 . May 13

...a big ball of wibbily wobbly timey wimey... stuff...

 **jjpdn:** Aye!

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **Firestar001** chapter 1 . Jun 16

Hope you continue this. I also hope Dr Strange could get the rest of team RWBY to Earth too.

 **jjpdn:** Most of RWBY characters will be featured. Most of Marvel characters will also be featured.


	7. Chapter 6: Difference of Opinion Part 1

**A/N (V1.1: September 9, 2019): Removed all mentions of especially unsavoury matters. Hopefully back to T rating now!**

 **A/N (original AN):**

 **Important Note: I do NOT believe in any ideology that my characters spout - I have characters, and they do stuff with them, and deal with their pros and cons.**

 **If this story hits 100 favorites, I think I'm going to scream. Also, if you want to know the status of the next chapter, you can always check my profile. I update my profile every few days.**

 **Also, the story's name was changed from RWBY: Infinity Crisis to The Infinity Crisis. I felt like the 'RWBY' part did nothing lol.**

 **Also, I have added chapter names to the rest of the chapters. Enjoy easier… chapter finding?**

 **Beta: Path of a Writer**

 **Chapter 6: A Difference of Opinion Part 1**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **Afghanistan, 2004**

The desert wind swept across the desolate landscape. It blew sand over a lone man who crawled desperately forward amidst its fearsome embrace. Behind him, lay a path of bloody imprints.

His hands were wrapped with a cloth ripped away from his shirt, though now it was soaked with crimson fluids. Tiny shards of metal were pierced into his skin. A single rod of plastic was pierced through his left leg, making him unable to walk. The sand irritated his open wounds and exposed skin. Still, the man pressed on, pushing through the haze of pain.

He did not falter, even when he started becoming dizzy due to blood loss. For he knew that if he didn't make it, he was dead for sure.

And so he crawled, and crawled, until an hour had passed. Under the desert heat, he became like a husk, dried. Still, he pushed himself to his limits, and beyond, because he wanted to live.

Was it such a big thing to ask from life? For some it was.

When the question was just to choose between siding with a god or with a man, it was easy. What can man do but grovel at a god's feet? Even to be just a servant was to live. But, now, things had changed. _She_ had come.

She couldn't be anything but a goddess, the man thought. Who else could run up a missile? Who else could _melee_ a missile and come out unscathed?

A goddess has come to the battlefield, and suddenly the battleground was one between two gods. His role as fodder suddenly became all too real. Now, he was but one of many that'll be slaughtered as collateral during every clash, a flesh ragdoll whose only purpose in life was to die in pain and in vain.

 _I just wanted to live._

 _To live!_

Even as his sight faded and his muscles degraded to nothing, he persevered.

Until he couldn't.

He collapsed onto the burning sand, spent. His mind still rejected death's offering, but his body had failed him. Here, in the forsaken desert, he would die, for nothing.

But just then, suddenly, a shadow loomed over him.

"Professor, I found one of your men."

A mirage of the desert, the man thought. _A delusion._ He couldn't see well, nor could he talk, so dehydrated he was.

There was the sound of footsteps making their way towards him.

"Like I said, Elixir, I am never wrong. I do wonder why he is here. Heal him up."

Something wet and spongy was forced into his mouth. Then, life became even more painful for the man. It was like every cell in his body was burning, like an electric current blasting through his nerves. He opened his mouth to scream, and did. His muscles spazzed uncontrollably, gargling his voice.

"He looks to be just a boy. One of your pilots, I believe."

As his spasms ended, he suddenly realized that this body didn't hurt anymore. Miraculously, he was fine again. He opened his eyes to look at his saviors.

It was his god.

The moment his mind caught up with his eyes, he dropped to his knees to prostrate before him. "Master!" His voice was indeed of a prepubescent boy.

His god wore a suit of grey mechanical armor, not unlike the exo-suits depicted in sci-fi. The god's helmet was removed to reveal the face of an elderly man with white hair. His skin was pale like the men from the west.

The man to his side dressed like the locals of Afghanistan, with long flowing clothes covering his whole body, including his head, all coupled with a cloak. This was so that his skin was shielded from the sun's heat. Peering through the darkness under the hood, however, it could be seen that this was an asian man.

Behind them both were rows and rows of men and women, all standing at attention. All uniformed and armed with rifles.

They must have all arrived while he was unconscious.

"That wasn't easy for Elixir, little one. You have adequate reason for being out of contact for so long and giving my trusted man trouble, I trust?"

The boy shivered and prayed for mercy in his head. "Y-yes! I…"

Wait, he was bringing the news that he had failed to kill Tony Stark.

"...A… a goddess!" Such was his fear that he stumbled over his words. "I tried to kill him, I really did! But then- then a-an enemy goddess… she stopped me!" He blurted out without raising his head.

He shivered under his god's gaze, who watched him silently. Was he going to die? Or worse… _I want to live!_ "Master! Forgive me, I - "

"Silence." His god's voice was casual, but firm. "Raise your head."

The boy shakingly did so.

"Do you know where they went?"

"T-they are stuck in Baghronah!"

The old man waved one of the women in his army over. She gave her weapon to a soldier beside her and walked over with strangely robotic movements. Stiff. As she approached, the boy saw more of her.

She was a pretty girl of middle eastern descent, in her late teens. She had pretty onyx hair and smooth tanned skin.

None of that distracted the boy from her horrifyingly empty gaze, though.

" _A soulless_." The boy whispered in Dari.

Her eyes were unfocused, and face was completely slack and emotionless.

All who disobey his god lose their souls, it was said. They become automatons, puppets of flesh, and drained of whatever it was that made them human before.

"Tend to this pilot boy." His god commanded the flesh machine, and it did. "Boy, go with her."

He felt the girl's skin as she-it helped him up. It was warm to the touch, but a strange chill went up his spine. Then, it smiled at him, and he almost flinched at how almost-human-but-not it looked.

"Do not forget to thank him for his mercy." The god's right hand man barked out.

"T-Thank you, my god."

And he was led away by the flesh puppet.

" _Do not fail me again, or you'll be like her."_

That was the message.

 _If I obey… maybe I will be allowed to live!_

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

When the boy was out of earshot, the man named Elixir spoke up. "He accidentally called you a god again."

"I can not stop their foolish actions, only guide them away from their false idols," the older man sighed. "Now, he puts me onto this podium of godhood. What stupidity."

"...I think he already renounced them, professor. He is just commenting on your power, I believe."

"No. He has not renounced the greatest idol of them all."

"And what is that?"

"The greatest construct of humanity, a fiction in which believers and atheist pray to alike. Even you, Elixir."

The younger man was startled. "...I'm sorry?"

The old man sat down onto the sand, cross-legged. He sighed in relief as his old legs were allowed to rest. Elixir stayed standing beside him.

"What a beautiful sun," the old man said as he stared at the sky. "No wonder so many ancient civilisations believed it was a god. It is due to the sun that we exist. Here, in the desert though, it shows its second side - an unforgiving ruler who takes as much as it gives."

Elixir couldn't tell where he was going with this.

"You are looking for justice. Justice for your people, aren't you?"

The younger man nodded.

"Do you believe you are doing the right thing?"

"...Morally? No." Elixir answered without pause. "I know I should forgive. But, for no one else to be hurt, men like Stark and Yinsen must pay."

"So, you believe you are doing the right thing for the future."

The younger man paused. "Yes."

The elderly one laughed. "Then you still cling to tradition, my friend." He raised a hand to stop Elixir from interjecting. "What guarantees that after you stop them, the world will be better?"

"...Because they will be dead."

"The death of important people leaves a vacuum, Elixir. A vacuum that can be filled by worse men."

"There's a chance it'll be someone better."

"A man who survives that political chaos and finds himself at the top won't be a good man."

"I will make sure he is."

"And who guarantees a good man is a good king?"

"... If you don't believe my cause, then why are you helping me?"

The old man laughed again. It was the bitter laugh of a man who had seen much too much. "Still you cling to those hopes, those virtues. Justice, Law, Order… those gods, you still pray to them. Everyone still prays to them! They go to work without fear, because they believe that Justice watches over their lives and brings them prosperity if they do not breach the Laws' commandments, _but they are wrong._ Every war in the last century proved them wrong."

Elixir stayed silent.

"Justice, Law and Order are just idols of a different sort, little one. Constructs of the human mind. Fiction. Nothing says that if you are virtuous you might succeed! You might as well believe in a bearded man in the sky if you believe in justice."

"My intentions are right, no matter the results." Elixir calmly told him.

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Are they? Or were they born out of feelings of vengeance, ingrained in your brain by your experiences? Did you really choose them, or were they just a logical result from the computer that is your brain?"

Elixir was silent for a moment. "... Why are you helping me, Professor?" He asked again.

The old man grinned. "Because I want to. A "tremendous event" has happened, but it has not yet become known to the world! God is dead, the Enlightenment killed him, and all that is left... is man."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"You must be quite the hotshot pilot." The female engineer winked at him.

The boy awkwardly tried to put on his best smile. _She's really pretty_ , he thought.

The woman wore a tight yellow belly shirt that showed off her impressive assets quite well. She had an incredible desirable figure, in which the curvature formed an hourglass figure down to her long pale legs, that were shown off by a pair of short shorts that wrapped around her shapely bum.

He forced himself to keep looking at her exotic blue - or were they purple? - eyes that were framed by her luscious blond hair.

She was one of the few engineers who worked on maintaining his god's fleet of aircraft. Everyday she went to every one of the thirty helicopters and jets assigned to her and inspected them for damage and wear. Most of the repairs themselves were done by machines, but she did do some work herself.

That made her attire quite strange, since her work involved dirtying herself in depths of machines dripping with lubricant and covered in grime. Yet somehow, she was perfectly clean at the end of every shift. Not even covered with sweat, no matter how hot it was.

How did he know? Well, a pretty, attractive woman with a naturally flirtatious personality was, well, magnetic, and got her quite a few admirers at the base. Among those admirers, there were people who expressed their interest… more strongly. In other words, by stalking.

Now, he wasn't one of them! He was not that creepy or disgusting like them. Gossip and rumour, though, was a thing.

"I heard you did it while heavily wounded," She continued as she leaned over the mess table. It did interesting things to her eyes.

...yes, her eyes.

"I-Iit w-was no b-big deal…" he stuttered out, trying to hide behind his Kabuli palaw. He spun his fork spun nervously in the pile of seasoned rice, meat, fried raisins, carrots, and pistachios.

"No, really, it was unflyable. I checked. Don't be modest…" She pouted at him. "Tell me, how did you do it?"

Warning claxions. Explosions. Disintegrating frame. The wind. Exposed. Hands, burning, clenched around the useless stick shift. The dripping of his blood. Feet pushing as hard as he could against the petal - leaking hydraulics? Pain. _I want to live!_

"Ah! I'm sorry!" She pulled back. "Was I too close?"

The boy fell back into reality. His blank, unmoving gaze snapped back into focus. It took a moment for him to realize he was staring at her breasts. Instead of turning into a stuttering mess like he would have before, he met her eyes again as if nothing had happened.

He couldn't bring himself to be embarrassed. There was none of the old lust.

"How are the repairs for my helicopter going, Aliza?"

The engineer blinked. "Saywat? It's going well, I - "

He interrupted her. "Which hangar did the recovery team bring it to?"

"Hangar seventeen, I was working on it just-"

And he was already gone with his platter. Aliza stared at his retreating back, a bit worried.

"Hey, Aliza, how's it faring?" A man called out from afar. Another pilot, this one much older than the boy.

"Oh, great!" She blindingly smiled at him. "You're back from your patrols, good looking?"

"You bet. I better freshen up now, call me if you are up for another round of Nowrang."

"Sure~"

Another man waved. "Hey, Aliza, come check this out!"

She turned to him. "Uh, sure!"

"Aliza, you have to see this!"

"Erm, a bit busy, gonna check it out later, ok?"

"Aliza!"

"Hello, Aliza!"

More men kept calling her.

The woman moaned, before putting on her best smile and carried on with her work.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

He smelt it still. The fire, the steel, it stayed in his nose as if it painted his lungs.

He coughed.

The boy stumbled forward towards his hanger door, down a long concrete hallway inspired by Brutalism. He caught himself with one hand on the keypad, and almost dropped his food with his other hand. Taking a moment to right himself, he stared back at his rice, and almost puked.

He dumped his paper plate into the garbage beside him.

Then, he turned and punched in 'Boyce Aria', followed by his password, into the keypad.

His mother was a fan of the West, much unlike his father, and his name had been a point of contention between them. Personally, he agreed with his father, with how the westerners had ruined the world.

That didn't matter anymore though, since the Al Faath had come, wiping away all opposition in their path. Now, his village was somewhere out there, burning.

Were his parents still alive? He didn't know. Years ago, he was taken away from them and forced through pilot training for this outdated equipment. He had never seen them again since. Sometimes he dreamed of finding them again… but their faces would always be blurry. It had been long.

The hangar door opened, revealing his repaired helicopter.

It was a wonder, what the engineers these days could do with robotic assistance. The main rotors that were bent at quite the angle were replaced, and the tail that was torn off was reattached. The landing skid that had been destroyed on crash landing was fixed. On its front, the windshield that was smashed when the goddess had entered was also replaced. The only highly visible thing that remained of his incident was the stripped paint and sand that still clung deep in its frame.

He did his stupid unlocking dance and the side doors of the vehicle shifted to the side. The boy entered.

Battered was the only way he could describe the interior. The important electronics were all replaced, and looked strange in the midst of dented metal. The crash had warped a lot of the walls, and repairs could only go so far.

He walked up to the front, where there was only one chair, and he sat down on it. They had decided not to replace the broken one since it would be only him flying anyways.

It was rough and stiff, but he loved the familiar feel. He felt good looking out the window. It was his place. No matter the recurring sound of grinding metal replaying in the background of his mind, no matter the ash and smell of gasoline as the fuel tank ruptured… The memories caused his heart to race, adrenaline fueled his consciousness, and then his hands firmly grasped the newly cleaned control stick.

He _smiled_. A smile of insanity, of desperation. It was the only thing he could do now that he had tasted death once.

He really was going to die this way, wasn't he?

Suddenly, the voice of one of his superiors came on the intercom.

"Attention, 14th, 15th, 16th aerial brigade, to the assembly room."

It had broken him out of his trance. He let go and sighed. There would be no rest for him. With reluctance, he stood up, and turned to walk past six shadows.

 _Wait._

He stopped right before the closed side door of the helicopter, that he had come through. He didn't remember closing it.

The boy slowly turned around to face the men. Each of them had their faces hidden with cloth, had visors to hide their eyes, and wore helmets to hide their hair. Their uniforms were obviously meant for stealth, and were light and skin-tight. The assault rifles in their hands were quite threatening as well.

" _Do you have any information on the location of Stark_?"

It took the boy a moment to realize that the Russian words came from a seventh member, a much smaller, young, obviously female figure about two-thirds of his height. _A midget?!_

The boy sweated. " _Ba-Baghronah!_ " He quickly forced out.

"Vielen Dank," the small female thanked.

One of the taller figures then waved his arm in a circular way in mid air, and to the boy's disbelief, orange sparks shot from his hands as a portal was literally carved into reality. The seven figures stepped through, before the portal closed behind them.

The boy was left alone in the helicopter, unsure if he should report to his superior or report to the military doctor for drug tests.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **Holy Germania, 1999**

"Pay attention you bastards!" Klaue yelled at the gathered men from on top of his wooden box. "I brought a girly!" He let a young girl up by pulling on her arm.

Everyone quieted down as they stared at her appearance.

She wore a pretty sky blue sundress that complemented her white hair and large blue eyes nicely. A bit on the skinny side, but that could be easily remedied by nourishment.

"Yo. boss, she's a real looker, but isn't she a bit young for us?" One of the men, a fairly built asian, yelled.

"You dumbass, the boss is obviously thinking of selling her as merchandise!"

"Oh, thanks for answering, fucker."

"You're welcome, dipshit."

"They're right!" Klaue announced. "One of my connections found her, no parents, no property, and underage, so she's free for the taking!" He grinned and clapped his hands together. "What a haul, eh? We'll be set for our lifetime!"

The men cheered.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

The room they brought her in after they took off her cuffs was actually quite nice. It was clean, furnished, and surprisingly spacious. It wasn't luxurious, more plain, but for a cage, it was nice.

There was a wooden table, two chairs, a dresser and a night table. A closet was located on the side by a tall human sized mirror, and on its opposite side was a bathroom. Weiss had looked over the bathroom, and to her surprise, there was a shower, a sink embedded in a plastic counter, and a nice porcelain toilet.

Strangely, there was none of the brown calcium buildup in the bathroom that was so characteristic of old places. No musty smell either. She found no dust build up on tables, no bugs, and no trash underneath the double bed.

Weiss was standing in the middle of the room, still pondering the dilemma, when her guard opened her door.

Her guard was a young man of maybe twenty years of age, and just as ridiculously tall as the rest. He was some kind of archer, much to Weiss' confusion since she had seen guns, and had his bow and quiver strapped to his back. The man wore leather clothing and was slimly built. From the wear on his equipment and the calluses Weiss had felt on his hand when she had shook it - that had quite surprised them, since it made it look like they were doing business and not, well, a slave getting moved around - she guessed that he was quite experienced.

Weiss was pretty sure he had a healthier conscience than the others. When Klaue had assigned her to him, they had exchanged gazes and she instantly knew from his look, which spoke that he was ashamed of what they were doing. The way his jaw slackened, then how he forced himself to be stoic, it all gave him away.

"Meet your roommate," the man said, no, commanded. He stepped to the side, revealing a really tall girl.

She was much older than Weiss, and by the look of her body, more mature. Somewhere between sixteen and twenty. Her skin had a healthy glow and her cheeks were rosy, girl wore a light summer dress similar to Weiss' that matched her blond hair. She must have been well taken care of.

Weiss internally grimaced. Is that what they wanted of her? To be fed and grown, then sold off like cattle? She wanted to shiver, but she would not betray her fear. No way.

The other girl skipped - yes, skipped - forward, ignored all propriety, and cupped Weiss' hands in her own.

"It's so nice to meet you~! I'm Mila~" The girl introduced herself.

Why was this 'Mila' stretching every last syllable of each sentence? "My name is Weiss, it is nice to meet you too."

Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle. "Really~?"

Weiss leaned back uncomfortably as the girl further invaded her personal space.

"Leave her alone, Mila." The guard sighed. "And no, she is just following social etiquette. There is nothing nice about meeting you."

"So mean~!" The girl named Mila pouted. "Weiss~, tell him he's wrong~"

Weiss' eye involuntarily twitched. Did the girl really have to stretch every last syllable?!

"He was very harsh about it, but could you please step away from me? This makes me uncomfortable."

The strange girl took a second to think about it. "Ah!" She then said, released Weiss, and smacked her fist into her open palm. "It's because I haven't said _that_ yet!" She cleared her throat. "Let's be friends!" She declared with a big smile.

Weiss blinked. "That would be ultimately up to you and how you act," she answered, trying to reject her.

"Ok~!" Mila nodded.

Weiss finally relaxed. At least the dumb girl seemed to understand that.

She was wrong.

Weiss yelped as Mila suddenly enveloped her with the biggest bear hug she had ever felt, even when including Nora's.

"Now we are best~ friends~!" Mila sang.

"Get off, you ditz!"

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

It turns out that Mila was actually the sister of one of the men, a guy named Hazel. Due to her personality and possible mental deficiencies, her brother was quite protective of her. Weiss wasn't sure how that resulted in him keeping her with slavers, though. Seemed illogical.

The second thing that Weiss learned was that she was quite the clean freak. Weiss, after her shower and grooming herself, had left some of her hair on the hair brush. When Mila found out, she hounded and whined at Weiss for a full ten minutes. No wonder the room was so clean.

Third of all, Weiss had realized a very important fact. It wasn't that everyone else was tall… it was that she was even shorter! She had looked at herself in the mirror and realized that her body was young, maybe seven years of age! Wasn't that a shocker.

Since Weiss was not allowed to leave the room, Mila then suggested that they play some chess. Weiss was surprised that the other girl even knew the rules. They set up the board on the table and sat down to play.

"So, Weiss, why are you here~?" Mila moved a pawn.

 _Stop. Stretching. Your syllables!_ Weiss didn't want to make any accidental enemies though, so she kept quiet.

Weiss moved a pawn. "I'm just helping out with some house work." That was what Klaue had told her to say to anyone who was an outsider, and by Mila's personality… Weiss was going to guess that the girl wasn't told much.

The reason why she was told that was probably in case they had any visitors. Like many criminals, these slavers seemed to live in society. The building they were in was owned by Klaue and was situated on the outskirts of a city. Each of the men had a day job and it was during the night that they did their deeds. Weiss wasn't about that break that rule when she was surrounded by these dangerous men with no morals.

Knowing that, Weiss knew what she had to do. All she needed was some way to get out and speak to the proper authorities alone. But how to escape?

It wasn't like there was any reason for them to let her out. If she asked for some freedom, they'd instantly deny it - it wasn't like they were idiots.

Her room also didn't have any windows or large vents. The only way out was through the door that her guard was, for a lack of a better word, guarding.

She also had no real way to get a message out, unless she sent it through Mila or her guard. Weiss had considered those two options.

Mila was… not intelligent, to say it honestly. Even if she was Weiss' ally, there was no way the ditz could help her get a message out without alerting everyone else. Unless... what if Weiss made it a coded message and convinces the girl it was something else? Weiss temporarily put that idea aside as possibly too hard to be viable.

Her guard seemed to be a more likely option, but she would have to somehow worm herself into his heart. That would take a lot of time, and Weiss didn't know how much time she had.

" _A bit young for us"_ , one of the slavers had said. Did they think she was a…? Or a… a… Weiss stopped that thought right there.

She shivered.

What kind of monsters were they? No morals, no compassion. Selling people as if they were objects.

Could she really survive this?

" _A Schnee does not retreat from a battle not yet lost."_

No, she still had time! She still had a chance. They had her down, but she wasn't out.

Weiss steeled herself.

While she was thinking, the game had progressed. Weiss made some moves without thinking too much. Surprisingly, they were past the opening stage without Mila making any errors.

"Aaaah…" Mila looked deep in thought. "That's a mean move, Weiss~"

Weiss hadn't done anything past developing her pieces.

"So, what housework will you be helping out with~" Mila casually asked.

Weiss stilled. She and Klaue hadn't figured out the details. "Ah, I believe cooking and cleaning. I'll have to ask."

"Ok!" And before Weiss could stop her, Mila called out to their guard. "Clint~!"

The guard cracked open the door. "What do you want?"

"What housework is Weiss helping out with~?"

"Ah? I think… cooking and cleaning?" Looks like the guard also didn't know.

Mila's eyes widened. "Oh~! We need to introduce her to the cook and custodian, Mr. Becker, then~!" She stood up and tried to drag Weiss towards the door. "Come on, let's go!"

"Er, wait, you can't do that!" The guard quickly told them.

"Why not?" Asked Mila innocently.

The guard sweated. "Erm…" Weiss would have felt bad for him, if he wasn't a slaver.

Suddenly, from the hallway came a fourth voice. "Yeah, Clint, why not?"

"Klaue!" Clint recognized.

The door wasn't open enough for Weiss to see the second man.

"What's the problem?"

"Mila wants the girl to meet Mr. Becker so that he can show her around the kitchen and etc., but you know…" since she was their merchandise, and all.

There was a pause, before Weiss heard Klaue's classic laugh. "I don't see why not!"

 _...what?_ Weiss dropped the chess piece she was holding in surprise.

"Ah ha!" Mila called. Everyone's attention turned to her. She rushed back to the chess board, where Weiss' piece had landed, and moved one rook. "Checkmate! You lose, Weiss!"

Weiss' left eye twitched.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **A/N: That's that!**

 **As you can see,**

 **Next part of this chapter is Blake, Yinsen, Tony, Twony, Sora, and Ren! Huh, wait, "Sora and Ren"? Hmmm.**

 **I'm happy to see more reviews this time around! Favorites dropped, though :( Only seven for the last chapter.**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **BrightRaven -chris210racer chapter 6 . Jun 26**

 **Wunderbar! Was happy to see another update in my inbox. Loving the wibbly wobbly timey wimey... er, stuff. I'm a sucker for exploration of alternate history. As a literature and military history double major, it gets my blood pumping.**

 **Jjpdn: ...no pressure at all.**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **Venomstrain chapter 6 . Jun 27**

 **So if the other tony is from the future, does he still have his nanotech suit? Cus i really hope he does**

 **Jjpdn: Yeah, he'll be borrowing some materials from younger Tony.**

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 **H3ctic chapter 1 . Jul 1**

 **Nice first chapter! I'm gonna keep reading, and I'll give a better review when I'm done.**

 **Yours sincerely, H3ctic**

 **P.S. Found this on Reddit btw**

 **H3ctic chapter 2 . Jul 1**

 **Tony is such an asshole. It's great**

 **Jjpdn: :( assholes bad**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **MageTGM chapter 6 . Jul 1**

 **This is quite interesting. I would at least like for you to tell me where you plan to place Ruby. I can guess Yang was there for Captain America.**

 **Jjpdn: Sorry, no reveals in review replies! You are right that Yang was around for pre-Capsicle though.**


	8. Chapter 6: Difference of Opinion Part 2

**A/N: Hey look!**

 **It's misdirection!**

 **I've updated Chapter 1 and 3 so that they are clearer.**

Chapter 6: A Difference of Opinion Part 2

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Tony?"

"Yo, kid. Come in, just working on an aura detector."

"An aura detector?" Blake asked, as she entered the room. Said room had been completely renovated into a workshop. "Gah! Why are you half naked?!" She covered her eyes.

"Sheesh, kid, it's the afternoon, in the desert, and I don't have bullshit aura. I'm burning. And what are you, fifteen?"

Blake growled and put down her hands. "Weren't you working on preparing to go?"

"I was done ten minutes ago. And to your very first question, yeah, I want to detect it and measure it."

"...detect it?" Blake repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, I was wondering if I had so little aura that it was invisible or something. Hey, stand still."

Tony brought up the strange machine he was building. It looked like an oversized camera. He pointed it towards Blake. On its screen, a silhouette of her appeared in a purple hue for an instant before disappearing. "Damn it. Piece of junk." He tossed it to the side. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Blake went straight to the point. "I want to know more about NAU. However, first… what is with that glowing thing in your chest?

"It's an Arc Reactor. Keeps shards of metal from shredding my heart."

"Oh."

"What's with the surprise?"

"Didn't know you had a heart."

"Oh, ha ha, I totes haven't heard that one before. Original, how 'bout doing some stand up comedy when we're out? I'll pay you, and market for you. Guaranteed popularity."

Blake shook her head, "Why do you have metal shards in your chest?"

"Oh, nothing much… just an average Tuesday. Blew up, got kidnapped by terrorists, told me to make them weapons and die, or not make them weapons and still die. Jerks. Terrorists, all bad news, kid."

She winced.

He pointed a finger at her. "Hey, Blake, you ever see a guy in a mask talk to you about equality? Don't believe him. Lotta crazy people like that, just as many as the good guys."

Double wince.

"Especially if he starts about blowing up trains."

Blake tried to laugh disarmingly.

Tony noticed, but didn't comment. "Anyways, lucky I still remembered how to build an Arc Reactor to power the electromagnet that saved my life. My father made it back in the early 1960s, 1961 I believe, and NAU are the only people with the knowledge to build them. Cool glow, eh? It's also great for parties."

"A-Anyways, maybe we should carry your stuff to the desert raft now?"

"Sure. Tell them these three boxes." He pointed at three large cases.

She walked over, stacked all three on top of each other, and lifted them up. Blake couldn't see what was inside, since they were closed.

"BS aura strength," Tony commented again, before they both left the room.

Neither noticed that the aura detector that Tony had made, made a crackling noise. It whirred back to life. The shock of the impact against the table had fixed whatever issue it had, and on the screen, it showed strange. almost invisible, red threads stretched all over, including the scenery outside, like a spiderweb over the world.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

Clint and Mila walked beside Weiss, while Klaue led them from the front. They headed for the wooden stairs at the end of the hallway.

Weiss wasn't sure what to feel. While Klaue seemed to be quite boisterous, it did not mean that he was stupid. He was unlike the girl on her right, who was holding her hand and skipping merrily.

A tall, burly man in a checkered shirt and worker's pants strolled down the stairs. He was checking off items on a clipboard.

"Hazellll!" Mila waved at him.

The man looked up.

Strong features, sharp jawline, eyes like polished onyx, it all marked him as an attractive older man. His facial expression was quite serious though, and creases on his face marked his stress.

"Mila," he acknowledged in his gruff voice, before walking past them.

Mila pouted. Letting go of Weiss, she glided to her brother's side. "Hazellllll, give me a hug~!" She moved to hang off his arm.

Hazel moved his arm away.

"Why~?" The girl moaned from the floor.

He paused. Reluctantly, he turned around to help his sister up and gave her the most awkward hug known to man.

"Yay~!"

Then he pushed her away, and left.

Mila pouted.

"He's quite awkward around her." Weiss noted. Her old atlesian was getting better, allowing her to speak her mind easier.

For a second, Weiss saw Clint grimace, before he quickly smoothed out his expression.

 _What was that?_

Klaue led them further down the hallway. As that happened, Weiss took careful note of every room they walked by. Mila's room was located at the end of the hallway, so they would be passing every other one.

Most of the rooms had doorways. Similar plain doorways that didn't have any differences except for the number above them. That was, until they arrived at the second to last one, which's door was open. Weiss turned her head a little to covertly peak in.

Some kind of storage room, she guessed. There were plenty of items stacked on top of each other and covered with dust. Her eyes, however, drifted towards a statue that caught her eye.

The statue rested on the ground and depicted a woman. She was sitting cross legged and her hands were crossed in the shape of an 'x' in front of her chest. Her eyes were closed, and she was completely bald. Weiss couldn't tell what material it was made out of, since everything was covered in a layer of startlingly accurate paint.

What caught Weiss' eye most was just how life-like it looked. For a moment, she had almost thought it was a person. Still, it looked glossy, washed out, and obviously not an actual person on closer inspection.

"Weiss~,"

Had she been caught peeking?

"Did you want to play checkers~?" Mila asked with sparkling eyes.

Weiss looked at her eager expression, confused, before looking at the room, and realized that beside the statue, there was a checkerboard on an ornamental table. Unlike the other objects, it seemed to have been recently used.

Her guard was quick to stop them. "Sorry, Mila, but we are going upstairs. You can play lat-"

Klaue put his hand on Clint's shoulder to stop him, before answering with a laugh. "Of course! Go on. We have all the time in the world!"

Weiss couldn't even blink before she was dragged into the room by the older girl. Instead of letting her sit down, Mila picked the younger girl up and planted her in a well cleaned chair, while she took the one across the table and beside the eerie statue.

"Let's play~!" She reached under the table to pick up the game pieces. Weiss helped her set up. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Clint awkwardly stand by the table to watch them in turn. Klaue pushed an old armchair over, wiped off as much dust as he could, and planted himself in the seat comfortably.

Weiss found herself a bit confused. When she thought of slaves, she thought of those poor faunus slaves who were being mistreated all the time. Not, well, playing checkers with another girl.

 _[Move C3 to B4.]_

 _Hm, that is a good move. Though, what if Mila does - wait. Who told me that?_ Weiss' concentration broke as she lifted her head to look around. There was just the four of them. However, she swore that she had heard a fifth voice.

"I win~!"

What?!

Weiss stared back at the board, and to her horror, she really did lose again.

...to Mila?!

"Again!" She declared.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Weiss, are you sure you don't want to give up?" Laughed Klaue.

Weiss, on the other side, sat with her hands covering her face. She had lost five times in a row. To Mila.

Clint couldn't help but be a bit impatient. "Don't worry, girl, you'll be able to beat her when you're older," he reassured. "You are just a bit young."

Weiss gave the young man a _look_ with a smile on her face that was impossibly angelic. "I'm sure that you two have been bored. Why don't you both have a turn?"

The young man shrugged and looked at his boss. Whatever happens, he's getting paid, so he didn't care.

"Why not!" Klaue leapt to his feet. "I'll go first. Barton - that's Clint - you can go next."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

Weiss: 0.

Clint: 0.

Klaue: 0.

Mila: 16.

"The same girl who sometimes opens the closet door thinking it was the bathroom…" Clint muttered hollowly.

"The same girl that sometimes eats coffee beans thinking they are chocolate…" Klaue muttered.

"I mean, we're not stupid, we are just dumber than a dolt," Weiss said. She kept her perfect posture, but her eye was clearly twitching.

Mila tilted her head. "Hm? It's just a game~!"

Klaue stood up. "Anyways," He laughed weakly. "We are making everyone wait! Come on."

Weiss helped Mila gather up the pieces, and then followed the two men out of the room. As she left, she couldn't help but feel like there were eyes on her back. A glance backwards told her there was nobody. Feeling she might just be paranoid, she ignored it to return her focus to pressing matters.

 _Why did Klaue allow me to play games?_ Weiss wondered. It was not completely out of the ordinary, but was still kind of strange. Was it like some kind of slavery version of the last supper that people on death row could have? A good last meal before execution?

"Sir," Weiss called to get Klaue's attention. "Why are you treating me like this?"

"Hm?"

"You are showing me around and letting me meet people. Aren't you afraid I am going to attempt to escape?"

Klaue, who was about to lead them up the stairs, stopped. He slowly turned around.

"Little girly, you really aren't just some random orphan, are you?"

The young girl didn't let it get it to her. "Ah? Please elaborate."

And he grinned. A major grin, one that even showed off his yellowing teeth.

"Change of plans. Again, that is. Let's go on a road trip, shall we?"

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Weiss~ don't leave me~!" Mila whined. In her tight embrace was a white haired girl, who was exasperated to the core. They stood in the doorway of the garage in the back of the restaurant.

"We'll be right back, Mila. It won't take long at all." Weiss assured her. She had a weird urge to pat her on the head.

"Weiss~…" Mila looked at her tearfully. "Promise?"

Weiss nodded.

...wasn't Mila's hug also a bit long? Struggling was not what a Schnee lady would do, so she didn't, but it had been a minute and the older girl was still swinging her from side to side in her embrace as if Weiss was a teddy bear. Behind her, she could hear Klaue's laugh coming from the car.

Weiss' left eye twitched. That's it.

She struggled as hard as she could and-

Glass shattered.

Weiss was dropped onto the ground, and she caught herself before she fell on her butt. She blinked in complete incomprehension.

"No, Hazel, it wasn't me!" Mila yelped automatically. She looked around. "Huh? Where's the cup? Didn't I break a glass again?"

Without another word, Weiss quickly escaped into the car. Had her aura just been broken? By a hug?! Either Mila was really strong, which was unlikely, since her captors wouldn't be laughing if they knew Mila had that much killing power, or Weiss' aura was just that weak right now. Looks like she'd have to wait for it to improve with age. That's… unfortunate.

"No~, Hazel, don't take away my video games!"

Hazel poked his head out from around a corner. "Mila? What did you do?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

Mila had a deer caught in headlights kind of look. "Nothing!"

"That doesn't sound like nothing, you brat!"

"Ah, no~!"

With aura that weak, it would take her many years to get to an acceptable level. Many years that Weiss might not have. Her heart beat faster with that realization. She needed to explore more avenues of escape, and soon - before anything bad happened.

Sitting in the backseat, beside Barton, she clenched her tiny fists. The man didn't notice, since he was helping her put on her seatbelt. The buckle didn't slip in its slot because it was rusty.

She'd make it through this. She had to.

Taking a deep breath, she put on a polite smile back on her face.

The garage door opened, and Klaue drove the car out.

Strangely they didn't tint the windows anymore. For the first time since she had gotten here, she saw what this section of the world looked like.

...or, at least, only the tip of the buildings, and the gray cloudy sky.

She was too short to see out the windows.

"Sir, may I… stand up?" Why were they allowing her to go outside without shackles or tinted windows anyways? Was it because her guard was there?

"Hm?" Realizing it, Klaue guffawed. "Ho! Are you too short?"

Clint sighed and took off her belt. She knelt on the seat, and finally, she saw the world as it was. Klaue slowed down the car too… for her safety? Careful with the merchandise, Weiss guessed.

The streets had dust and pot holes all over, but could not be called dirty, because it wasn't that bad. Liveable buildings with a bit of wear stood beside complete ruins, where makeshift rag tents were set up. Lots of homeless people were living there.

 _They look so skinny_ , Weiss thought. The years showed on their faces, as some huddled together for warmth.

Every country had their homeless and unemployed, but the sheer number here was staggering. There were at least five per destroyed house, and many more for larger buildings. Weiss saw relatively tall skyscrapers in the distance, so this wasn't even downtown.

They drove for a bit in silence.

"It's not a pretty life out there." Klaue suddenly said. Weiss met his eyes in the rear-view mirror. "Most people don't live past forty."

Weiss' heart went out for them. She had always been sympathetic for the struggles of the working class. Seeing such thing made her remember just why she had wanted to become the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company.

Back in Atlas, the SDC persecuted against the faunus race. Long inhumane hours, poor working conditions, and little pay, a remnant of an ancient social system centered around slavery. Weiss had seen the inequality, and was determined to fix it.

...so was her mother, now that she thought about it. But her father saw it as an inevitable reality that wasn't their job to change.

"Girly, are you some kind of disgraced noble?"

Weiss was jolted from her train of thought. It wasn't a question she could answer, since she had no idea if this body had a past, or if the strange cloaked shadow had made it for her. So, she stayed silent.

"Or maybe a foreigner? I can't place your accent, but your german is certainly weird," Klaue grinned, like a bloodhound following a trail. "The important thing is anybody local would have known about this. You are very interesting, Weiss."

She ignored the questions. "Where are you taking me?"

"Oh… just on an errand. Even criminals have to pay their taxes!"

"Why bring me? And why the lack of precautions, now?" Weiss pressed on. "Aren't you afraid I'll be able to notify the police?"

Klaue exploded into a fit of laughter. As if what Weiss said was the biggest joke in the world.

Weiss waited for him to stop.

"Ha, ha! I haven't heard that in five years!" He finally said. "Girly, that guy who gave you to us? That _was_ the cops!"

What? The police…

"The government is weak. No money, no influence! The Germanians never were able to recover from their losses. It's a bit better in Frankfurt, but good luck getting there while the roads are like they are!" He slapped his leg with a laugh.

 _Could this be a bluff?_

However, she had never seen so many homeless, nor a still lived in city so destroyed. Normally, a city such as this, after a war, would be patrolled by soldiers. Here, she had seen absolutely none. Not even police.

When Weiss had woken up, she thought she had gone to the past. However, till now, she had seen nothing familiar at all. Not even people using aura. Is she in a completely different place? Perhaps a different planet, or universe?

She had died on Remnant after all, and then all that weird floating-cloak-tentacle-woman thing happened. For all she knew, she could be in an alternate universe.

Klaue parked the car. He turned around to look at Weiss, who had none of her inner turmoil on her face.

"The only ones you can trust to keep the order, is us! The Families. We police our own, and our word is the law." He grinned. "You better hope you never cross us, or you'll wake up dead."

This had to be an elaborate trick. It had to be.

Without the police, then who could she turn to? No justice system, lawless… she was but a girl, with no support or family. How could she survive this horrible, alien world?

"I'll show yah." Klaue exited the car and came around to her door. "Come out."

She stepped out onto the surprisingly well maintained pavement, and was about to look around, when without warning, Klaue pushed her.

Weiss fell to her side. Her aura had regenerated, but it was so little that she didn't even bother activating it.

She growled. But when she looked up, her anger disappeared and was replaced with something else. She scrambled backwards.

Klaue, a grown man, was like a giant before her. In his hand, he palmed a gun.

 _This… this feeling, its fear, isn't it?_

The man ungently planted his foot on her chest, forcing her against the pavement. "Look around you."

Weiss struggled against it, forgetting all about virtues or whatever crap, and tried to pry off the thing that was stopping her from breathing.

"Look around you!" He pointed the gun at her head.

She did.

Nobody looked at her.

Why didn't they look at her? Why didn't they care?

"They are used to it," Klaue answered her unspoken question. "Might be the first young girl I would have killed, but would not be the first person. What do you think, girly? Want to be the first?"

The girl wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Crying did nothing. Had it stopped her mother's descent into her drunk abyss, or saved her from her father's cold calculated plans? Did it stop her from bleeding out after Cinder had betrayed her?

No, Weiss had only survived for so long because she had _fought._

In a snap, she kicked the back of his shin with surprising flexibility. The man stumbled forward, surprised, and in that moment Weiss pulled his foot across her body to worsen his balance. Using as much aura as she had regenerated, she then used the opportunity to smack the gun away from his flailing hands. The gun landed on the ground a good distance away.

"Barton!" Klaue barked.

Weiss ran forward as fast as her tiny feet could take her towards the firearm. That was before a foot smacked into her back, sending her sprawling on the ground. She gritted her teeth. If only her body was stronger...

Clint stepped over her body, grabbed the gun, and gave it back to Klaue.

Weiss scrambled up, defiance burning in her eyes. She stared Klaue down. "If you have rules, you can tell me them with words. I'll follow," Weiss told him evenly.

The slaver was taken aback for a moment, "You'll follow? How 'bout what just happened?"

"I was merely protecting my current market value. Is that not in your interest?"

Clint's mouth fell open in shock.

Klaue, on the other hand, threw his head back and laughed. "Girly! I like you!"

Before things could go any further, they all redirected their attention at woman who strolled near them. "Please don't do such things on holy ground." She stuck out her hand expectantly, and Klaue ceded his gun to her.

"Sister Dora." Klaue and Barton both acknowledged.

"Representatives of the Klein Familie. Welcome to a house of God. Peace be with you." It was an aged woman in strange black and white clothes. Her whole body was covered, except for her face and hands. A cross of some kind hung from her neck.

"Nice to meet you too. My name is Weiss." Weiss did the best curtsy she could, considering how her clothes were now dirty. She took the chance to quickly situate herself.

They were before a large cathedral. Weiss recognized easily its general architecture. However, the religious symbols like the cross and the inscriptions made little sense to her.

The woman eyed her for a moment, before speaking up. "Mr. Klaue, I assume this is for your yearly donations? Please follow Brother Adam. I will take care of little Weiss."

"Heh, I knew she'd be popular. Treat her like you treat me, Weiss, same rules! Come, Barton, with me." And with that they left. Weiss was left alone with the Sister.

"I will not ask what was going on." The Sister finally said. "We don't - can't - interfere with Familie matters."

The little bit of hope that Weiss had felt at the woman's appearance was crushed without mercy.

"But I can listen and give suggestions, young one." The woman stepped forward and gently cupped Weiss' face. "And comfort you, with the knowledge that God loves every single one of his creations. He will not forsake you."

 _What?_ _What did the gods have to do with anything?_

From what Weiss was taught, one of the larger theories on Remnant was that the God of Light and the God of Darkness had created their world together. To Weiss, a god creating the world was not something unimaginable, nor unrealistic - it was a possibility, though still unconfirmed. This was because of a very important fact.

No fully scientific explanation could explain their world.

From the floating moon pieces in the sky that never recombined, to the sun revolving around their planet, it was like their world defied physics half the time for unknown reasons. With no available avenues of exploration for their mysterious origins, funding dried out and they decided to switch to work on solving other issues in their world.

That is why Weiss easily skipped past the disbelief towards God's existence, assuming Him to be a possible creator of this world as a counterpart to the God of Light and God of Darkness.

However, long ago, the twin gods had abandoned humanity, as tales went on Remnant, their reasons to do so unknown. With little instruction, humanity treated the event more like a historical fact and dedicated no major religion to those gods. If there was one, they weren't big. After all, what was the point of worshiping gods that had left them? The twin gods had left no instruction, just a hostile world for Remnant's inhabitants to survive. So, the idea of a religion, while not entirely new to Weiss, was something she had never really taken any time to dwell on.

And this woman, Weiss could see, just by her words, obviously worshipped this God she spoke of.

"First, let me tend to your wounds, little Weiss. It would be a shame if your beautiful skin was marred," the woman gently told her.

Now that she looked at it, the rough concrete had scratched her skin. However, Weiss wasn't worried at all. This wasn't the first time her aura had broken and harm had been caused to her. She wiped the blood away with her thumb, showing the unblemished skin underneath. "No worries, not even a scratch."

Her aura had quickly began to regenerate from her tussle with Klaue, since it was not broken, and used up voluntarily instead. For small wounds, aura easily healed them as if they had never happened. It was larger ones, or delicately positioned ones, that ended up scaring. Like the one she had gotten on her right eye before.

The woman looked surprised. She grabbed the arm that Weiss had fallen on to take a closer look. "...you are right. Oh my! A healing stim, or gene mod, perhaps?"

Weiss had no idea what any of those were. Before she could ask, though, the woman continued, pushing the matter aside.

"Let's go inside, then. Would you like to pray to our Lord, or to ask for intercessions of Saints?"

Weiss followed her into the building and down a long hallway. The decor was surprisingly plain, with a few paintings being the only thing that stood out. Depictions of important religious scenes, Weiss guessed.

"Excuse me," Weiss asked kindly. "Are you talking about your god, when you are talking about Saints or Lords?"

The woman was surprised once again by Weiss. "You have not heard of the Lord of all creation, the great Father?"

"I have not heard of any of those gods."

"No, He is not a god, He is the one and only God."

Ok… sure. Weiss was not in a situation in which she was about to care too much about religious beliefs. "You said you would be willing to listen and give suggestions?"

"Yes."

 _Why did Klaue leave me with the woman, then?_ Weiss suddenly realized that this woman probably couldn't help at all. Either, she was a spy for Klaue, or just plain useless. So, she told the woman only things that Klaue would know.

The Sister sighed. "Poor child… I'm so sorry, but like I said before, the Church can't interfere at all with Familie matters."

"So, they are above the law then?"

The Sister winced. "The three Churches… allow their existence. Some order is better than none at all."

"Then, may I ask, how is the law enforced in this country?"

"Paladins," the woman answered. "Brother Ernst!" She then turned and called.

A man who stood at the far end of the hallway came over. "What is it, Sister Dora?"

"Just teaching some things to this young lady." She turned to Weiss. "This man is one of the paladins."

The man wore some kind of white and gold knight's armor and had an ornamental sword at his hip. He wouldn't have looked out of place in medieval times, if he didn't have a rifle in his hands.

"Hello," he let go of the rifle with one hand to wave at the little girl.

Weiss smiled back as nicely as she could. All that sparkling armor, completely useless. Great. Still, that was kind of weird. She had heard nothing of the government yet. And the lack of police didn't signify good things.

Sister Dora let him go back to his post.

"I will assume that this church runs the country, then?"

"Not exactly. The three churches control the country together."

Weiss blinked. Three churches, all in control? That didn't sound stable.

"Progressives are in charge of the Executive branch, the Traditionalists are in charge of the Legislative branch, and the Ambivalents take care of the judicial branch."

A theocracy, with multiple religions. Now that was a thing that Weiss had never heard of.

"Ah, and who controls the paladins? And why don't they enforce order?"

"Each of the three churches have their own paladins, noble men who have given themselves to upholding the peace. The reason you don't see them much is that they are few. Much too few, and we don't even have the money to equip them all."

Weiss eyed the medieval armor plates he wore. Wasn't that just a waste of money?

They walked into the room at the end of the hallway and entered what Weiss guessed was the main room. It was large and spacious, and filled with strangely shaped benches. They all faced the far middle, where a wooden podium stood. Behind, hanging on the wall, was a sculpture of a cross. One large stained glass artwork let in light from the outside on each side of the sculpture.

Weiss twitched. Didn't they say they didn't have enough money to enforce order? Then why was the church so well decorated? She voiced that concern politely.

Sister Dora sighed bitterly. "We would, if selling them was worth more than the transportation costs."

"Too heavy?" The paintings seemed light enough.

The older female shook her head. "No, the problem is that art has devalued over the years." She realized those were big words for a little girl. "Sorry, I mean art is worth less these days. The common man cares more about his empty belly, for good reason, while the richer man cares more about the failing economy." She still ended up using big words anyways. Luckily, Weiss was not a normal kid. "Anyways, Weiss, would you like to give your prayers to the Father?"

What?

"A prayer to a god who left us? Why?"

The Sister shook her head. "No, little one, the Father is always with you. He is all powerful, all seeing, all good, and everywhere. I'm sure God would like to hear from you."

Weiss blinked. That… was a bold claim.

For a girl whose family was as cold as ice, whose father exiled her, whose school was attacked by who knows what, and then was murdered and turned into a slave in her second life, it sounded like the most outrageous thing she had ever heard.

"No thanks," she politely declined.

"You are certain? Your path is not yet determined. A prayer could change a lot."

Even in such a country, in which most of the population was starving, and slavery was rampant, people could still believe in such things? An all powerful, all seeing, all good, and all present god, that still allowed such suffering? That didn't make any sense to Weiss. To her, religion was knowledge, a fact of life or just empty belief at other times. A part of history, either giving moral lessons or explaining or interpreting existence. Not something that affected the now.

But these people gave prayers?

"I am."

The Sister accepted her decision sadly and began escorting her back to the entrance.

Realization came to Weiss slowly, that there really was no one out there to help her. No father, no family, no gods, no rights, and no police. She was here, all alone.

All alone, in the midst of an alien world.

She stopped walking. Surrounding sounds were suddenly muted for Weiss.

It was cold being alone. A kind of suffocating silence that squeezed you in its grasp. It choked her.

This… was her life.

She was a slave. An object.

A life full of misery, followed by worse misery to come.

A small part of her realized that people were streaming into the room. Poor people. Ripped up clothing, skin tight against the bones. Dirty. Filthy. They sat in the benches.

And they prayed.

Weiss _got it._ Or at least, what she believed was the truth.

So deep was their despair, so horrible were their lives, that they could not help but turn skyward. To the only light left.

Weiss looked up. There was another stained glass window above, which glimmered underneath the sunlight. It promised a brighter future.

Un…

Un…

She clenched her fists.

"Unacceptable!" She screamed.

Weiss Schnee did not need a father, or a Father, or a god to save her. She didn't need the police or the government. Throw those away, forget them! Forget all about how unfair the dice was cast - for what was the point? If they won't save her...

Then she'll save herself.

Weiss Schnee ignored the stunned people around her, and marched on to her next task. If she keeps moving on, no matter how long the journey is, she'll arrive at a better place. Talented, knowledgeable, polite, and disciplined, that is what a Schnee is.

Not one to lay down and accept her fate.

"Little one, I'm so sorry that we can't help, but-"

Weiss turned around and gave her a big smile, surprising the woman. "Don't worry, I understand. Please, ignore my outburst."

The Sister didn't seem to know what to do, when faced with such a 360. "...are you sure? I will escort you back to the entrance, where you can wait for Mr. Klaue and Mr. Barton…"

Weiss walked further away.

The Sister was about to follow, but for a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Sister Charlotte?"

It was an elderly woman, with hair turned white as snow, in similar attire to Dora. Pretty blue eyes, and a heart shaped face, she must have been pretty when she was younger. What stood out, however, was a large gruesome scar across her whole face. "Let her go, Sister Dora."

"But she - "

"No, she'll be alright. Tend to the unfortunate masses. Leave this matter to me."

The Sister nodded and did as she was told.

The old woman watched Weiss' retreating back. "I've seen so few like you, little one," she commented to herself. "Ones who have stood beyond the rest, those who persevered through troubles no one else could. Driven to such extremes, they make tough choices, major choices. Choices that have changed the world for the better."

She sighed.

"And I've also seen ones who changed it for the worse."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

Brother Ernst's grip on his gun tightened as he watched the slavers leave.

Oh, he would love to rip those bastards apart. Slavers were one of the worst of the worst, in line with rapists. He was a paladin, a virtuous man of absolute justice, in line with God's will, and his very duty was to slay those criminals. He gritted his teeth, anger simmering just beneath the surface.

However, if he broke the uneasy peace between the churches and Families, his country would certainly devolve into civil war. More innocents would die. So, he stayed his hand. For now.

If he ever had the chance, he'd bring God's fury upon the earth without hesitation. All he needed to do was to wait.

God will provide.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

Weiss felt Klaue's eyes on her as he and Barton escorted her back to the car. They sat back in their original positions.

She met Klaue's eyes in the rear-view mirror again.

"The sky, its beautiful, isn't it?"

"Hm?" He started the car.

The girl had turned to peer outside. "A pretty endless blue. Its wide glorious expanse, its infinite potential, promising us so much. Still, it stays so far away from us."

There was a moment of silence.

"If it ever came down, you would never let it go, would you?"

Klaue grinned bitterly. "Not for the world."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

The moment Weiss stepped out of the car and into the garage, she was tackled back in by a flying streak.

"Weiss~!"

"Get off!"

Klaue led the group to the hallway connected to the garage.

The front for the slaver group's base of operation was a french restaurant. Weiss had no idea who the french were, and had no idea why it was even a restaurant. From what she was taught, weren't those businesses harder to keep afloat?

The stairs brought them to a hallway that led to a backroom, kitchen, and the dining room.

"Weiss, you can even meet the rest of the boys one by one!" Klaue told her. "Let's go to the back."

They followed him.

Weiss looked around at the decor. It was old, but surprisingly well maintained. There were signs of wear like scratches on the walls, but all the paint stuck well and any visible defects seemed to have been repaired. On the wall, in between paintings, was also a strange thermometer that measured in 'sieverts'. She never heard of that kind of temperature scale before.

A building told a lot about its inhabitants, and from its state, Weiss guessed that some of the men were orderly. That didn't mean much, but it did put Weiss more at ease than, let's say, a run down shack in which they were swimming in filth.

"The hell these kids doing?!"

An elderly man stomped out of the room the group was about to enter and past them.

"Mr. Becker, you need to understand! We need the money!" Came from inside the room.

"The hell with money! Geh sterben, you russian plant!" He retorted angrily, before finally noticing Weiss. "You!"

Weiss was taken back by his appearance. "Yes, sir?"

The elderly man was old, maybe more than one hundred. No hair on his head or face except for a pair of thin white eyebrows. His skin was shrunken around his bones and age spots filled his face. His limbs were partially replaced with cybernetics that barely imitated real ones - they were more like skeletal limbs, allowing him to act so lively even at such an advanced age.

"You are the one they are trying to sell?" The old man named Mr. Becker asked her directly.

"You are mistaken," Weiss answered, in case she was supposed to lie. "I - "

Klaue interrupted her. "Yes."

Weiss resisted the urge to face palm.

"Klaue, you impotent bastard!"

"Hey, they do it in Hamburg, why can't we do it too?" Klaue kept his smirk.

Becker stomped into Klaue's personal space, and towered over him. "Other than the sheer immorality of it?" He growled dangerously. "We are not monsters!"

 _Not monsters? What a joke._

Weiss blinked. Was it just her, or did the old man's eyes just glow a strange orange?

Klaue didn't react. "How about we sit down and talk about it like reasonable men?" Behind him, Clint shuffled uncomfortably.

"There is nothing reasonable about this!"

Klaue turned to the the white haired girl. "Come on, Weiss, I'm sure you are hungry too, eh? Mr. Becker, why don't you make her something nice, maybe some sausages, cheese and bread?"

"I'm hungry too~" Mila added.

Becker looked at the two girls, then reluctantly moved to the kitchen.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

The tension at the table was definitely palpable.

Weiss ate her food gracefully with a fork and knife. She sat on a cushion so that she could reach the table, much to her chagrin. To her right sat Mila, who was surprisingly doing a similar thing. Klaue, Clint, and Becker sat across from them, a cup of coffee in front of each man. They all sat not in the dining room, but in a soundproof VIP room.

Klaue was the one who broke the silence. "You know how Schmidt's youngest one has smallpox, right?"

Becker nodded slowly. "Yes, but I haven't heard any news."

Klaue took a sip of his coffee. "Becker, it got worse. High fever, rash, vomiting, they had to rush him to a hospital."

"Is he alright now?"

"No."

"No? You mean he's…"

"He's not dead, yet." Klaue emphasized the 'yet'. "The hospital, on the other hand, wants fifty thousand marks for his treatment."

The old man shook with rage. "Fifty thousand?! That's ten times the usual price! They are playing with our lives! There aren't any alternatives?"

"Our doctors are saying that they don't have the equipment. We need to use the Wagner Familie-owned hospital."

"Arschloch!" The old man spat. "No wonder they are overcharging. Those bastards are probably hoping that his son dies!"

"I know."

 _Gang rivalry?_ Weiss guessed.

"No wonder you want to sell her. Schmidt's a good man, and his family's been loyal to our Familie since its creation." Becker realized, frustrated.

Weiss sipped her tea. _That was a problem_ , she thought. She had hoped that Becker could be an ally.

"Not just that. I've poked around with my contacts, and found how much the nobles in Frankfurt pay for an exotic slave like her." He took a sip. "Seven. Hundred. Million. Marks. For a plain black haired boy with red eyes, Becker."

Becker choked on his coffee. He took a moment to cough it out. "Seven hundred million? That's enough for half of us to get out of this hell hole!"

"No more watching your children die from hunger in the winter, a real roof above everyone's head… seductive opportunity, isn't it?"

Weiss calmly cut a piece of bread into more manageable chunks.

Becker stayed silent for a while, before rubbing his temples.

"Plus, since we are selling her to nobles, it's almost guaranteed she'll live as a servant or something. Not as, you know, _that_. I heard the Vons treat their servants, employees, and housekeepers well."

"And the unsavoury ones?"

"We can always choose who we sell her to." Klaue offered.

Internally, Weiss sighed in relief. From what she remembered from Faunus history, there were many faunus slaves who found themselves a pleasant life in pillar families, as unexpected as it would have seemed. Some were even liberated. This path would at least give her a way out.

Becker sighed. "My Lord. I can't believe I'm considering this. What has Germany become?"

"It's not Germany anymore. It's Germania." Klaue snorted. "'Holy' Germania."

"Weiss. Little one."

Weiss looked up from her food. "Yes, sir?"

The man stood up, startling her. Becker came around the table to her side, before kneeling in front of her. "I'm so sorry."

Weiss didn't visibly react. "Please, stand up, I…" Then she saw his face.

His eyes were wet.

"I'm so sorry," he repeated.

Weiss stared at him. Well, that apology was completely useless, wasn't it. "Mr. Becker."

He looked up.

"There will be times when you are forced to make a decision you don't like. I can not fault you for that."

The man gasped. "You can't say that!"

"No, I can. And I understand," Weiss said as sincerely as she could. It's not like saying the opposite would help her in any way.

Suddenly, he grabbed her hand. Cupped it in between calloused palms. And he cried anew.

Weiss just sat there awkwardly.

"It's all been downhill since the Second World War," Clint muttered in his coffee.

Becker glanced at the younger man, wiping away his tears. "Kind of weird to hear it from an _american_ immigrant."

Barton bristled. "And what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, especially since I like you, boy. But if you look at history, every single one of our problems comes from the americans and the soviets."

Weiss was kind of interested. "What did the americans and soviets do?" She asked curiously.

Klaue's eyes widened. "Weiss, no!"

Everyone around the table flinched as Becker stood up and loudly slammed the table, jostling the food and plates.

"What did they do?! Those foreign furzgesicht can go to hell! They are betrayers, and inhuman monsters!"

"Mr. Becker - "

"Klappe!" The old man snapped. "Sure, they kicked the Nazis' lying, genocidal asses out. That's great."

Becker drank the rest of his coffee in one swig.

"Then came 1962."

The elderly man looked at everyone in the eye, one by one.

"For the next five years, their idiotic disputes sunk the world into a war that we have never seen before. Nuclear weapons did not just kill families, no, they destroyed cities. You could sleep peacefully in your bed - and the next moment, bam! You wake up to the sounds of firebombing, and the next morning, you realize that your sister in another country was killed when her city was nuked, or receive news that your parents were slaughtered with your relatives as neighbors began fighting neighbors for food."

Weiss was taken back by not only the picture he painted, but the sheer intensity of his passion.

"We learned in school what to do in case of bombing runs." Clint whispered. "We lived in fear that every day would be our last."

"Governments collapsed overnight as their capitals were wiped out. Chaos, anarchy, those would become the only things people knew in Europe. It became lawless. Everyone feared that it was the end of the world."

"But us germans, we stood as one! They tried to bring us low, perhaps afraid of what we could accomplish, but we would not bow our heads to their might! Our heads high, we swallowed the indignity and began to rebuild."

Slowly, with every word, Weiss got taken along for the ride. His intonation was filled with emotion. In no time flat, Becker had Weiss' undivided attention. He reminded her of the lecturers at home, proud of Atlas' heritage and nationalists to the core.

"Our factories produced better and better goods. Our cars were renowned in the world. Our skills were looked for everywhere! And, by our own sweat and blood, our people rose up from poverty!"

Men cheered, distracting Weiss from the story. It seemed that during Becker's speech, someone had opened the door, letting the discussion filter into the hallway. Now, men surrounded the doorway, eager to hear more.

"However, the americans and the soviets were like snakes in the grass, lambs jealous of the eagle's flight! They feared our prosperity!" His fist slammed onto the table once more. "They feared what our engineers could accomplish, what german engineering could accomplish!"

The listeners yelled out their agreement, except for Klaue, Clint, Mila and Weiss, that is. Klaue just laughed, while Clint just groaned. Mila tilted her head, having already been lost by the second sentence.

"So, they, who had taken down God from his throne and instilled the Devil, sold their souls for technology! They marched into Africa and burned forests to the ground, sacrificing thousands of men, women, and children to their lust for power!"

"The Wakandans, bless their hearts, nobly fought back, and wiped out almost everyone, but it was for naught. Two men had managed to sneak in and return, one man for each damned country. Next year, the two superpowers flooded the market with their cheap products, having received a thousand meter jumpstart off a mountain of corpses!"

The men roared their outrage.

"Those murderous bastards!"

"Go back to their own country!"

"Why don't they go screw with themselves instead!"

Weiss was almost swept along with their excitement as everyone around her began chanting. Even Mila had, though it was certain that she had no idea what was going on and just wanted to join in cheerfully. Still, Weiss kept herself composed, like a real lady.

"Our industries failed. Our factories closed. The lives that we have built for ourselves, all gone. Even our country failed! We separated from each other and left the ruins of our glorious cities to live back in the countryside, and returned to a life that we thought we had long left behind."

At some point during his speech, he had made his way onto the table.

"At heart, Germans are hard workers! We sought to make our living with our own hands by living in unity with the land! Blut und boden, in the right way!"

Becker's eyes narrowed. "But the soviets were angry that we did not lay down and die! So what did the devil-worshipers do?"

"They invaded!" Someone in the crowd called.

"The soviets sought to steal our ancestral lands! They thought we were weak!"

Becker smirked. "And we!"

"Proved!"

"Them!"

"WRONG!"

The crowd roared with him.

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **Berlin, Germany - 1966**

A cool spring breeze blew over acres and acres of empty farms and forests. It rustled the newly grown leaves of the trees and the remains of hastily harvested fields. The sun had just come over the mountains, shining light over the land.

Tranquil. Peaceful.

Until the roar of machinery shattered the serenity.

 _In the spring of 1966, the red army rolled into Berlin's outskirts once more._

Armored tanks rolled straight through fences without care, ruining farmlands. Thousands and thousands of them, encircling Berlin from the east. Behind them, a gigantic mass of infantry was marching like a tide of red, escorting the support equipment.

 _Seventeen thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, one hundred thousand artillery pieces, and three million soviet soldiers. That is what your fathers faced._

Ahead of them, stood the barely standing city of Berlin, weary of war.

 _The non-combatants, like children, were unable to be evacuated. The Second World War took too much from us. Trucks, trains, any vehicles, they took most of them. So, even the civilians took up arms. Your fathers, and even mothers for the first time in a long while in German history, were ready to lay down their lives for you!_

They hid in houses, in the shadows, as insurgents in the darkness. Traps in the streets, bombs strapped to men. The streets were silent, ready to be turned into a bloodbath.

The residents of Berlin knew they were going to lose. Still, they were ready to fight. For they had no choice. Their children and spouses were behind them.

 _Valiant men and women! Heroes, martyrs of the German people! Who could ever surpass the bravery that these doomed people showed us?_

Snipers aimed down their sights at the cancerous mass rolling towards them, knowing that they could hit every bullet and it wouldn't matter. Civilians laid around corners, armed with pistols they barely knew how to use. Below, mothers hid in basements, with a hand over their children's mouths so as to make no sound.

 _However, it was not all lost. For we had a secret weapon. A weapon that your fathers worked tirelessly day and night on, so that it could surpass the rudimentary vibranium weapons our enemy wielded. Precision German engineering at its finest!_

Far away from the plains, a woman stepped out from the Berliner Dom. She took in a breath of fresh air. The skies looked calm, unaware of the approaching storm. She smiled.

"Do not fret because of those who are evil," she recited. A clear and confident voice.

She took another step forward and into the light. Her red and yellow armor plates glinted in the sunlight.

"For like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away."

Her long, strangely white colored hair fluttered in the wind.

"Trust in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

She tucked her hair, then put on her helmet. Her blue eyes shone through the suit's eye holes, seemingly glowing.

"He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,"

On her chest, a reactor whirred to life. A warm blue glow radiated from its core.

She leapt. Jets on her armor lit up, catching her in the air, before they lifted her to the heavens. Behind her, similarly armored soldiers took to the skies one by one.

"And your vindication, like the noonday sun."

The sun, behind her, illuminated her in a halo of light.

 _On that day, the Iron Legion made history._

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

"Excuse me," Weiss interrupted.

Mr. Becker turned his attention to her, a bit annoyed at the interruption. "Yes, Weiss?"

"What happened to them?" It was obvious that the Legion had failed, since the country was in this state.

He growled. "Stark happened."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **A/N: "Wait, that doesn't make sense," careful readers will say, "if Howard Stark made the Arc reactor in 1961, and nobody except the NAU knows how to make Arc reactors, then how did Germania get it for their 'Iron Man' armors? Better question, how did they even make Iron Man armors in 1966, without even the advanced technology that the Americans and the Soviets had? Tony made his in 2004, forty years later!"**

 **Good question, and I didn't magically just say it happened! It's very logical if you think about it. I think you can guess the answer :)**

 **For those still confused about the Families, well, just think of them as the Germanian mafia.**

 **For the religious, remember this is just Weiss' first look. We will be going through a much more nuanced exploration of religion later.**

 **In case you were wondering, the woman was reciting parts of Psalm 37:1-6.**

 **Skit#1**

 **Tony Stark: Woah, Germany! I'm the one who made the Iron Man suit.**

 **Germania: It's Germania, not Germany. And we were obviously able to do it because we are better than Germany.**

 **Germany: Nuh-uh.**

 **Germania: Uh-huh.**

 **Germany: Nuh-uh.**

 **Germania: Uh-huh.**

 **Tony Stark: I mean, they didn't even figure out the Arc reactor, how could they have an Iron Man suit?!**

 **Germania: Alternate power sources? Lots of car batteries?**

 **Skit #2**

 **NAU: Wait, who are the germanians again?**

 **Russia: Oh, germanians - you mean germans, right, aren't they the idiots who fought us in winter?**

 **UAC: That's just mean.**

 **Germania: Verpiss dich!**

 **Actual Germans: WTF why are we like that. That's weird.**

 **Actual Japanese: At least you aren't dead.**

 **Actual Canadians: At least you are being mentioned.**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **As you have noticed, I've switched the update schedule, since I realized that the last chapter implies Weiss being, well, a child sex slave, WHICH IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. The 'prostitution' line is only there to add realism, since, well, that happens in real life, but this story is about Weiss surmounting challenges,** **not that disgusting crap.**

 **Disclaimer: Also, remember that characters and me are VERY separate. I don't condone extreme nationalism!**

 **Next: A Difference of Opinion Part 3**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **imsabbel chapter 7 . Jul 23**

 **Okay, finally found this fic.**

 **Thats a lot more corssover, dimension wobbly and time fuckery than I expected.**

 **I really hope Yang did not sink japan, because that creates the Dark Phoenix situation: Once you killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined you kinda only have "redemption via death" left.**

 **And ugh about our two main RWBY girls: Blake is refered as a goddess, and Weiss is sold as a child sex slave? Eeek. Seeing that this happened 5 full years before Blakes arrival and Tony, a very well informed guy, has zero idea about anything Auro / Remanant /etc, it reeks of her actually being _stuck_ in that situation for the meantime, which kinda would drag the whole fic down to "do not want" level.**

 **Jjpdn** **: A-freaken-men. No child sex slave stuff, that is like rated MA+ and utterly disgusting, not a topic I want to even touch. So, I hope that this chapter has reassured you.**

 **However, I will note that Weiss will keep her old life secret, because its not really something you go around telling others. A secret weapon, if you will. Her greatest weapon will always be her mind.**

 **Blake, on the other hand, is a terrorist who is terrible at keeping secrets (as shown by the show). So, that's why she was crap at keeping her secret here too.**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **Firestar001 chapter 6 . Jul 18**

 **Thought I'd comment on a picture I saw of RWBY and JNPR as Avengers.**

 **Ruby was Spider-Man (for some reason)**

 **Weiss was Dr Strange**

 **Blake was Black Panther**

 **YangCapt Marvel**

 **JauneCaptain America**

 **NoraThor**

 **Pyrra- Iron Man**

 **RenHawkeye**

 **Thought you might find that interesting. Keep up this crazy story my friend. Though I would like Blake to get back Gambol Shroud. Or even a mk II version.**

 **Jjpdn** **: Cool, but just in case you were wondering, team RWBY won't be taking the place of Avengers, they will work alongside them to create a better world.**

 **Of course! Mecha weapons will be coming!**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **djmegamouth** **chapter 7 . Jul 17**

 **Now I am all caught up. I wonder how long it take Weiss to realize she could slaughter all of these guys even with her bare hands. She physically weak bu RWBY standards of course by those standards beowolfs are as strong as captain America and yang would be able to punch out the hulk thanos style. So if she even has the most basic level of hand to hand training she'll make very quick work of them.**

 **djmegamouth** **chapter 6 . Jul 17**

 **It's awesome to see where all the changes started and stuff now. I almost forgot about this story.**

 **Jjpdn** **: Oh don't worry, aura is OP. Weiss though, since she was dead, has to regenerate all her aura pool back which will take a while. In the meantime, she'll have to use her greatest weapon: her mind.**

 **If you want to see OP aura stuff, wait for next chapter or Blake VS Weiss in the chapter after A Difference of Opinion Part 3, which will be called Black and White.**

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

 **Deleted Scenes (mostly for myself):**

Finally, Weiss had gotten the location where she was at. And… she'dll have to say that she hadhas no idea where that was. She needed more details.

"Excuse -me," Weiss asked. "What exactly is the situation? Is it that bad outside?" In the car, the windows were tinted so that she couldn't see where they were going. So that even if she escapeds, she couldn't tell anyone how to get to her, she believeds.

The three - four, if Mila was included - adults turned to her.

"Girly, the streets we picked you up from were the nice ones."

Weiss had no memory of what happened to this body before she'd, to best put it 'woken up'. "...that is... fortunate?"

Klaue laughed. "Yes, it is! In other parts of Cologne, we have people cannibalizing dead people for food!"

Weiss flinched. What?

"Daily shootings, rapes, and who knows what else. There are a hundred times more collapsed buildings than standing."

 **(\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/)**

From what Weiss was taught, it is one of the theories thatknown as a fact that the god of light and the god of darkness created the world together. To Weiss, a god creating the world was not something never heard of before, nor unrealisticnew or fictional - it was a possibility, though still unconfirmedn obvious fact. She easily skipped past the disbelief towards God's existence, assuming Him to be a possible creator of this world as a counterpart to the God of Light and God of Darkness.

However, long ago, the twin gods had abandoned humanity, as tales went on Remnant, their for reasons to do so unknown. Remnant had its religions, the one of The Brothers most common, but it was a rarity still, believers being far and little instruction, humanity treated the event more like a historical fact and dedicated no religion to those gods. After all, wWhat was the point of worshiping godsa god that had left them? The twin gods had left no instruction, just a hostile world for Remnant's inhabitants to survive. So, the idea of a religion, while not entirely new was actually new to Weiss, was something she had never really taken any time to dwell onthough not to Remnant itself since they did have other minor religions.

And this woman, Weiss could see, just by her words, obviously worshipped this God she spoke of. She had even said 'a house of God', which meant they had multitudes of structures dedicated to this god. Again, something that existed in her world, but most such were just temples of old, very few modern ones. If they were to some of the other rarer deities and not the brothers, they may had even been only one or two worldwide at best. And by Dora's words, Weiss felt they had a lot more than two or three modern ones around here.


	9. Chapter 6: Difference of Opinion Part 3

**A/N (V1.0 September 9, 2019): I heard you, reviewer who talked about over-complication. I heard all the reviews about how there's a lot of timey-wobbly stuff! I'll tone it down as best I can, but I have never completed a long story, so this is all practice for me.**

 **Guy who talked about the Weiss stuff, I also agree. I've removed some details from previous chapters that really stretch this fic's T-rating.**

 **Secondly, I will note that reviews are more important than you think - without them, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or even what I'm doing right.**

 **So please review, and leave what you like and what you don't like!**

 **Beta: Path of a Writer**

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **Afghanistan 2004**

"Lil' oberjäger, how's the heat?" A slim hooded man asked, his voice distorted by his mask. His whole body, including the face, was covered with some kind of black suit. Visors covered his eyes and a helmet protected his head. Under the sweltering sun of Afghanistan summer, it would have been unbearably hot for anyone dressed such, but this wasn't any regular material.

The little girl he was talking to hummed. She was dressed alike him, with similar equipment. "Manageable. You worry about yourself, gefreiter." The both of them, along with the other five with them, all carried backpacks almost as big as her. Strapped on the side of her backpack was a rifle.

The six men moved in a two by two formation behind their leader, she standing quite a bit shorter than they, as they marched through the desert.

"Still, I didn't think this training mission would be so interesting. What are the chances that we'll run into Stark, all alone and unprotected?"

"The boy talked about a 'goddess' protecting him."

The man laughed. "He was probably delusional, Weiss!"

"Shut it in the back," the leader of the group commanded. "We're here."

In the horizon stood a familiar hill.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

"Elder Yron, can I talk to you for a moment?"

At the sound of his name, the old man looked up from the book he was reading. He was sitting down on a rock that was carved into the shape of a stool. "Yes?" He sat in the cult's room from before.

It was Blake. She strolled in, her loose white cloths that concealed her Beacon uniform fluttering behind her. "I have some questions about your people's aura."

"Ask away, my lady."

She winced.

"Could you please stop calling me that? Even if you believe I have powers that could grow to ones alike a goddess, I would not like to be referred to as such."

The old man stared at her expression. She stared right back defiantly.

"Well, then I shall call you Ms. Belladonna," he conceded.

Blake went straight to the point. "I tried unlocking Tony's aura the other day, and I realized I couldn't. Did Yang have that problem too?"

"Actually, she did," the elder responded. "She tried to unlock everyone's aura here, but for most people, she said that she couldn't feel their souls at all." He put down his book onto a table beside him.

Blake was surprised. "No soul?" There was only one living thing on Remnant that didn't have a soul: the Grimm.

"I can assure you, my la - Ms. Belladonna, that they are not soulless monsters," he said with amusement, having guessed her leap of logic.

The girl hurriedly corrected him. "Sorry, not what I meant. I guess it would make sense that people in a different universe didn't have the same kind of souls I do. However, how come she was able to do so for you, then?"

"Our best guess was that our souls are different, even though we are all the same species."

"That's… not a very satisfying answer."

"It is the soul, Ms Belladonna. A very mysterious thing." He reached underneath his desk and popped something into his mouth. Cue the grinding metal sounds.

Blake twitched. Should she… point that out?

He swallowed. "Another thing you should know is that our aura is also different," He continued.

 _Different?_ "How so?"

He lifted up his arm. "Please, feel my aura."

She glided her hand over it. "It's… not forming a shell?" She could feel the aura, but instead, it was inside of him, not covering him.

Yron smiled. "Yes, instead of a force field, it acts similar to a dampening field. Here, hit me lightly on the forearm with your hammers."

She pulled out her hammers from beneath her cloths. "How hard?"

"Well, about as much as you would use on a nail."

Blake smacked it lightly, not wanting to hurt an old man.

"Harder than that," he encouraged.

Well, he was asking for it… and he did play that dumb trick on her when they had first met… Blake did as he asked.

Wincing a bit, he then pulled up the clothes of his dark robes to reveal his red skin. "Instead of preventing damage until a certain threshold is hit, my aura only reduces the damage I take." He stared at his arm. "That's going to bruise."

 _Karma. Put me on the spot and act like a senile old man, did you?!_

"Still, I unlocked Yinsen's aura and he had a shell of aura," Blake pointed out. Had a shell, until Tony poked it and broke it, that is.

"Does it regenerate?"

Blake paused. She hadn't checked this morning. "I don't know?"

"For the ones who had their aura unlocked, the shell had appeared at first, but easily broke, and never came back. However, people like me, who unlocked our aura through stressful circumstances, had no shell at all. I believe the temporary shell is caused by interactions between your souls and ours." He squinted his eyes at the sudden thought. "Yinsen was able to get his aura unlocked? I guess the goddess hadn't checked, since she avoided him."

"Avoided him?" Blake questioned.

"Nevermind that, it's just a suspicion I had, There are a lot of us, after all. She didn't have time for everyone." He smiled. "Any other questions or observations?"

Since it was about the ever so mysterious soul, Blake accepted his answer about aura unlocking as the best she could get for now. "Then what about Tony?"

"The younger one? What about him?"

Blake thought back to how Tony's soul felt and took a moment to put the feeling into words. "I don't know. I was unlocking his, and it felt like his was already open, but lacked aura. And he felt... like a tool?"

The old man snorted.

"I don't mean it that way!" Blake amended. "My aura coursing through him just reminded me of how I empower Gambol Shroud."

"Gambol Shroud?"

"My weapon."

He raised an eyebrow. "What was it? The goddess of light wielded shotgun gauntlets… with explosive pellets that flew like little rockets," He mumbled the last part to himself. "How does that even make sense? And why would you use a pair of gloves full of explosives to punch people?"

"Ah, I wielded a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe."

"...that explains nothing."

"Well, it was basically a short katana blade connected to an automatic pistol."

"What about the scythe?"

"What about it?"

"It was in the name."

"And? Well, in its gun form, it is in the form of a kama, which is a type of scythe, just not in its melee form."

"Your weapon is only in the shape of a scythe in its gun form," Yron stated flatly.

Blake shrugged.

"I… will accept that for now, what about the chain? What was its use?"

"Oh, it didn't have one. The sword and gun were connected by a metal cord, and I also used this." She held up her right hand, pulling up her sleeve, revealing a black ribbon tied around it.

"And that is?"

"A ribbon."

The old man stared flatly at her. "A ribbon." He paused. "Then what about the chain?"

"I told you, there's a ribbon."

"But where's the chain?"

"The ribbon," Blake answered. "I told you, the ribbon acted as the chain part."

He sighed. "...why a ribbon?" He made sure not to mention chain again.

She pointed at the pretty black bow on her head. "It matched."

Yron stared at her.

Blake stared back defiantly.

The old man dropped his face into his hands. "Why attach a blade and a gun together using a metal cord, yet for the chain, use a ribbon?" Came his muffled voice.

"Well, it doubled as a grappling hook and allowed special maneuvers that I was trained in."

"...but a ribbon is stretchy and weak, it can't replace the rope of a grappling hook…"

"Aura."

"I know you can imbue objects with aura to strengthen them, but isn't it too naturally elastic, even for aura to offset?"

"It's military grade."

Yron looked up at her serious face. "A military grade ribbon," he reiterated.

"You would be surprised. My eyeshadow is rated for year long missions."

"..."

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Fifteen minutes later, Blake put down Tony's boxes and stared at the strange vehicle now before her.

"It's a Sandcruiser Quinjet." Tony explained beside her, ever so not helpfully.

The two of them, plus Yinsen, stared at the strange aircraft. It looked like just a normal quinjet with a desert camo paintjob.

"How is the sand not being blown around? It doesn't have a skirt."

Quinjets were not made to be operated in the desert, since their hover technology would be blowing sand all over the place. Regular hovercrafts solved that problem with a 'skirt', basically a rubber enclosure beneath the craft, creating an air cushion that the craft can float on without blowing air everywhere.

Tony shrugged. "Don't ask me for details, it's thirty years old. I believe its twin altitude jets are made so that the sand is collectively blown towards the middle," he explained.

"So, it's not hover tech, it's just regular propulsion?"

"Aye, this thing is old. Thirty years old at the very least. Things like it were used back in the Second Civil War to crush Western US resistance and fight as foreign aid - mean, 'volunteers' that got excess military equipment - in African deserts," Tony made a quick circle around the vehicle for inspection. "Yeah, it's falling apart like Germania on drugs."

"Still useable?" Blake asked to make sure.

"Yes," Tony confirmed.

"Hello!"

The three of them turned to see Sajiao stroll over with a little cart of her own, Yron behind her.

"I decided that I would also like to come!"

"My dear!" Exclaimed Yinsen. "It's quite dangerous out there!"

"Well, with you all there, it won't be that bad, hmm? It has been a few months since I had seen our daughter…"

"I'll bring you back photos?" Yinsen offered. "I don't want to see you getting hurt."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "That's why we're sending an old geezer, a billionaire playboy, and a school girl instead." He paused. "Sounds like the beginning of a dirty joke."

"Only a joke because you are in it," Blake shot at him.

"Oof, kitty's got claws."

She ignored him. "Is it that dangerous out there?"

Yron, who had come to see them off, spoke up. "With the Al Faath closing in day by day, who knows. I don't believe they're that close yet, however, since we are still in loose contact with the surrounding settlements..."

"Even the slightest chance will stop me from agreeing to let you come with us," Yinsen firmly stated.

"Well, that's not very reasonable." The old woman put her hands on her hips.

Yinsen stepped forward to cup her face in his hands. Sajiao blushed.

"Wha - "

"Dear, it would be my forever shame if even one scratch befalls your delicate skin," he told her seriously.

She half-heartedly tried to pull his hands away. "That's really cheesy! I'm old, it's wrinkled anyways. I wouldn't care."

He did let go, but only for a moment as he then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. "But I do." Her head landed on his chest. "Please, my love?"

She smacked his chest and laughed. "Stop it!"

Blake slightly smiled at the scene. She sat down on one of the boxes beside to watch.

"We could always put it up for a vote."

Sajiao, Yinsen, and Yron all froze and stared at Tony as if he was a circus beast, perhaps a lion with a horn.

"What?" Tony looked around, confused.

"You of all people are saying that?" Yinsen said incredulously, echoing his statement a day back.

Yron frowned. "Is he saying it ironically?"

"Is this one of his jokes?" The old woman sputtered.

The genius engineer raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, hey, hey! NAU is plenty democratic!"

"You don't even have elections!"

"Look, woman. If China can call itself a republic, NAU can totally call itself a democracy! We at least allow referendums on important matters."

Yinsen shook his head in amusement.

Or at least he did, until the older Tony suddenly strolled through the middle of the group, ignoring everyone's greetings, and headed straight for the younger one.

"No elections?" He questioned. There was an edge to his tone.

Tony stared back unflinchingly. "Yeah, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Twonie repeated incredulously. "Imagine you die, wake up in the past, and suddenly realize that half the countries in the world are nuked, and your country got replaced by a totalitarian state. Yeah, kid, _everything's_ wrong."

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

When Twonie, the older Tony Stark, had heard of the North American Union, he had thought it was just a democratic union of Canada, America, and Mexico. Each of those countries were democracies, after all. He didn't think about it too much, since then he had first wanted to figure out if this was an alternate universe or his own. Turns out, this was just an offshoot of his, and the NAU was not democratic at all.

Because sixty years ago, some school girl may or may not have ruined history. A school girl who was also from another dimension, by the way. Wasn't that a head scratcher?

Twonie rubbed the ridge of his nose in frustration as he walked through the walkways around the hill village looking for the others. He ignored the surrounding villagers who glanced at him not-so-covertly and chatted among themselves about his presence.

What needs to be restated that this is the same Tony who woke up one day and suddenly, Mr. Big Bad Daddy Thanos was about to snap away half the universe. Oh, he knew about the stones existence well before, but snap away half the universe? That was outrageous.

Then, Tony, who prepared for years for a cosmic threat like this, failed to stop it. Now, he was back in the past because a second seventeen year old, dimensionally travelling schoolgirl stuck her 'aura' inside his younger self and sucked out his soul. Or something.

Yes. It was as stupid as it sounded, and from what his younger self had explained, it was also something new for the catgirl. How did force fields suddenly end up with time travel effects? Nobody knew. _Honestly_ , Tony thought, _I wouldn't be surprised if I got brought here by Mary Poppins herself._

Tony paused.

 _Or maybe it really wasn't due to aura?_

He put that thought aside. The man didn't know enough about aura anyways. He sighed.

"It was Monday, wasn't it. Or maybe this is karma for that bunny I got Pepper," He mumbled to himself. "No way, I saved the world at least five times, that's gotta cancel that out." He ignored the fact that he was the one who had created the world-ending monstrosity during the Week of - er, Age of Ultron.

Anyways, the point was, it was a really crazy few days for Tony. He wouldn't say he minded the conclusion, however. A second chance was a second chance.

He glanced outside, where the wind blew dust over the desert landscape. The memory of Peter Parker disintegrating in his arms flashed before him.

He grimaced.

No matter how he got here, he needed to prevent that future. He needed to grab the Infinity Stones and throw them into the sun or something, before another maniac decided to do the same as Thanos. Different universe, but people were still people.

 _You failed once._ A voice whispered to him. A dark insidious voice, from the tiny corner of his heart, caused by the seed planted by the very fact that he had _failed_. A very specific kind of failure.

Tony was not a stranger to failing - he was an engineer. He built things, they broke, he built better things. He was neither a stranger to social failings, as shown by his tumultuous relationship with Pepper and iffy friendship with Rhodey at first.

But the special kind of failure where he watched the closest thing he had to a surrogate son disintegrate and half of everyone he knew die in front of him scarred him to the very depth of his soul.

He gritted his teeth. _Shut up._

Half the people in the universe were counting on him. Self-doubt was alien to him, and quite useless. So, he crushed it into a speck of dust - _Don't think of dust, me_ \- and locked it deep in his psyche. His intelligence had never failed him.

 _Except for that time..._

Tony strode onwards.

"...don't we put it up for a vote?" He heard in the distance. It was his younger self's voice. He had finally found them and immediately headed towards them. The older engineer had some questions for his younger self, especially about the Sinking of Japan.

"...ou of all people are saying that?"

"Is he saying it ironically?"

"Is this one of his jokes?"

Did he mishear something? Why was that surprising of a suggestion, and 'you of all people'? Why was it so strange from his mouth?

"You don't even have elections!"

What?

He went out of the exit and straight underneath the hot afternoon sun. The others were grouped up beside a strangely colored Quinjet a short distance away.

"Look, woman. If China can call itself a republic, NAU can totally call itself a democracy! We at least allow referendums on important matters."

A thought came to him like a bucket of icy water dumped over his head.

Getting the Infinity Stones might not even be the biggest challenge.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Freedom and liberty. Were there any more important words for a faunus?

Blake didn't think so.

Tyranny and dictatorships were historically the worst oppressors of the faunus kind. An example would be their history with Mantle, the precursor to Atlas. Back then, they were only slaves, barely higher than animals. Even after that era had passed, their effects still persist, rooting themselves in the hatred and racism that still exists to the modern day. Lower wages, passive segregation, prejustice, those were all issues that the faunus had to deal with.

That was why the moment Tony hinted towards NAU's true political system, she tensed.

"Tell me. Is the NAU a democracy?" The older Tony seriously asked.

"...only on Mondays?"

There was a long tense moment as the two stared into each other's eyes. Blake watched them, understanding only the basics of the issue. She glanced at her surroundings in reflex where everyone else was watching with rapt attention.

The older Tony cracked his neck. To Blake's eyes, he looked just as unfazed as ever, despite the tension in the air.

"Good to know," he finally said. And turned to walk away. "Got to go. Left the stove on."

Blake stared.

"Oh, a second." He turned around and walked back to his younger self. "I asked around and it looks like they did have some. Here you go. Have fun, keep me posted about the reaction!" he called.

He left.

Blake shared a glance with Yinsen and pointed at the genius from the future's retreating back. Yinsen could only shrug.

"We can always talk more when we get back," the old man said. "We leave any later and it'll be night."

Blake took a look outside. The sun was still slowly retreating beneath the horizon, but it was still bright enough that visibility wasn't bad yet. She squinted. Some shadows did look like they were moving though, but that could be chalked up to the wind.

"There's a problem with moving at night? Shouldn't it be better due to the colder temperature?" Blake asked, confused.

"Er, there's not really any problem per say. It'll just be harder to be on the lookout for the Al Faath, Miss Belladonna."

The faunus girl ceded the point. "Does that mean that you have worked it out with your wife?"

Yinsen and Sajiao both looked away from each other.

"No."

"Nope. We ended up deciding to put it up for a vote for you three, since I'll be in your care, my dears!"

Tony shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Yron disagreed. "You're not here to play tourist, Tony. If your older self is right, we are here to stop the deaths of half of everyone in the universe. That, I'll say, is pretty important."

"She's Yinsen's wife. Won't cost us much to keep an eye on her, not like she's a kid."

"I stand undeterred."

The two turned to the only one who didn't cast a vote.

"What do you say, kid/Belladonna?", they spoke in one voice.

"Just… choose an option. Don't bring me into this."

"May I talk to you for a second then, dear?"

Blake stood up and followed her down the ramp, unsure of what she had in mind. Well, that was, until Sajiao took out a book from her little cart and showed it to her.

"This is..!" Blake blushed bright red at the cover.

"Yes! My favorite series, actually!"

"B-But two guys, that just isn't…"

"Oh, but you are interested, aren't you?" The old woman giggled into her hand.

"I…"

"And nobody would ever know, with this fake book cover you can attach over it…"

Blake glanced behind nervously, making sure that nobody was looking.

Sajiao took back the book and flipped to a page. "There's even more scenes like this~!"

Blake let out a strangled squeak. "That's - that's!"

"Oh yes!"

"T-Three at the same time?! That's great - I mean, I'm not interested at all!"

"So, you don't want - "

"No!" Blake grabbed the book and held it securely against her chest. "I-I mean, I'll feel bad leaving you here. I'll let you come with us!" She glanced around again, wide eyed. "Just don't tell anyone about this!" She hissed.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Quite a good distance away, a skyscraper-sized bipedal machine kneeled in the desert.

"I've always felt that your collection was… unnecessary, Mr. Valkyrie. Distasteful and incongruent with your own image. If you don't intimidate the locals into giving us access to their networks by tomorrow evening, I will dispose of it."

"Nooooo, Stane, sir, master, sir! Don't do anything to it!" The large man cried. Yes, cried, with tears streaming down his face. The six and a half foot man built like Schwarzenegger on Super Soldier Serum was sitting in his pilot's chair, deep inside the machinery of his mech, begging the figure on the holographic screen before him to save this 'collection' of his.

To his side sat a long-suffering petite asian woman. "Please stop embarrassing me, Sora," she sighed in her calm voice.

"Ren! You know what it means to me!"

"Please stop talking, ballerina."

"Hey, male ballet dancers are as strong as a football quarterback! I'll take that as a compliment."

"And you are as strong as the whole team. I don't need to hear that a man your size - "

The figure shown on their screen was rubbing the ridge of its nose as they continued their argument. Having had enough, the person interrupted them. "Stop arguing and deal with it!" Then, the feed disconnected.

"Sheesh, Stane's always a pain," Sora grumbled.

Ren shook her head. "You know Stane is worried. An important man like Stark wouldn't be harmed in any normal hostage situation, but these terrorists are something else."

"Yeah, Stane and Stark are like BFFs, huh? They're cut from the same cloth!"

The woman facepalmed. "...please don't say 'BFF' like a pre-pubescent schoolgirl or badmouth Stark in that comparison…"

"I would say I'm a kid at heart," the six and a half foot man winked. He saw his partner roll her eyes. "Still… After the founders passed away, Stane is the only parental figure left. Is _that_ person really alright for such a role…?"

"Don't think Stane'd be happy to hear that."

"I don't think anyone cares. Heard enough, and knows that we only want what's best for everyone. Plus, aren't the duo, like, Pettigrew and James? Being through lots together."

Ren blinked back at her partner through the video feed. "Sorry, could you say that again?"

"Pettigrew and James?"

"Is that a Harry Potter reference?"

"Yeah, I'm reading the Prisoner of Azkaban."

"Oh, you aren't finished yet. But I think you are looking for 'Sirius and James', not 'Pettigrew'".

"What, why? Didn't Sirius betray his friend?"

"I mean, even with the fix, your statement doesn't work…"

"Stop being a killjoy, Ren! Always ruining my jokes. I'm going to sleep then," he grabbed a pillow and slapped it over his face.

"Sora, we still have a checklist to go over…"

"Shh! I'm asleep. Dooooo. Dooo."

She sighed with a smile. "Sora, that's still not what a sloth sounds like…"

"Can't you tell I'm sleeping?! Rude!"

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

The Sandcruiser flew surprisingly smoothly. Smoothly enough that Tony had engaged the auto-pilot and gone back to tinkering with his fin. Yinsen and Sajiao were sitting by the window, peering outside, contemplating something. Blake, on the other hand wanted to ask about NAU and all the things that the others were saying about Tony.

Or read her new book.

 _Blake, you have bigger priorities right now!_

She sat up from her chair at the front of the quinjet and headed for the back where Tony was working.

Tony was inserting into the fin something that suspiciously looked like a laser cannon held together with duct tape. Blake stared. It was wider and multiple times longer than the fin itself.

She approached to inspect it from a closer angle, and stared yet again. Nope, nothing changed, still impossible. How…? It was at least twice the diameter...

"That doesn't make sense…"

"The stickers are great."

"The stickers?"

They turned their attention to the pink heart-shaped stickers that also decorated the laser canon. "Won them," Tony shrugged.

"...won them?" She shook her head. Blake wanted to ask about why other people thought Stark was an asshole, well, a bigger asshole than they knew him to be, not about where his stickers came from.

Tony pulled down his welding mask and brought out a blow torch from underneath the table that his fin rested on. "While you were catnapping…" Blake's eye twitched. The sparks from the weld bounced off her facial aura. "...I played a game with the locals and bet some equipment on it."

"A game?"

"Pretty fun. For me that is, not for my opponents." He looked up from his toy. "They lost," the grown man said with a serious expression. "All their money, properties, houses, stickers, hopes, and dreams are mine."

"...!"

Yinsen had heard and laughed. "Don't worry, Blake," He reassured her from the left side window. "It was just Monopoly. The only real items in the pot were stickers and a sandwich."

"The real miracle was that the game only took an hour." Sajiao added.

Tony wiped the oil off his hand with a dirty cloth. "Stane was a good teacher for the oddest of things." He reached underneath the wooden table to grab a second laser cannon.

Yinsen finally noticed, and blinked. "How is he…"

Blake looked up skyward for extra patience.

Tony didn't answer, instead fully inserting the cannon and then refitting his fin onto his back. "Tah-dah! Now, please don't distract me for the next two hours." He sat down and shut his eyes as if going to sleep.

"Wait, Tony! What about her question?!"

He didn't respond.

Blake narrowed her eyes. "Tony?" She whispered quietly in his ear.

Yet again he didn't respond.

"Seriously?!" Then, she noticed something weird. On the back of his neck, she could see a slight orange glow. She tilted her head to get a better look and made sure it wasn't a trick of the light. Vaguely, she could remember seeing something similar when he had first put on the fin. _Weird, but I'll ask him later._

She poked his side with her foot.

He suddenly stood up. "Goddammit!" he roared.

Everyone jumped.

"Didn't I tell you to not disturb me-" He paused. "Kid?" He looked up. "Why are you hanging from up there?

Blake glared back, before dropping down.

"Nevermind. We have bigger issues." Tony quickly rushed passed her to the main cockpit window. "Oh. As expected. That's not good."

Outside, the evening sky was alight with multicolored flashes. Explosions filled its endless reach with beautiful patterns, like the fourth of july fireworks.

Blake followed him. "What's going on?" She queried, annoyed at her question being constantly pushed back. Then she saw it. "Huh?" The other two people in the vehicle also came to take a glance. They voiced their appreciation, although more eloquently than her.

His gaze met Blake's. "Obi's gonna kill me." He plainly stated.

Blake looked back outside. Something caught her eye. She squinted, and barely made out a strange red line that began in the middle of the sky and continued straight vertically to the ground. Slowly, it cut across the scene and where it touched, the flashes of light appeared. Then, it disappeared, and so did the spectacle.

"If she ever asks, I wasn't there, ok, kid?"

"…?" Blake stared.

"Was just adjusting satellite orbits through an encrypted channel, until somebody _kicked_ me for no reason!"

Satellites did not exist on Remnant, since dust lost its effectiveness in space. Instead, they had gigantic towers called CCTs that acted as long range cell towers. That meant that GPS systems were inaccurate at best, and completely wrong at worst. Loss of a CCT would also mean communication blackout for a whole district.

"Did you just…"

"I might have to send the russ a fruit basket by the end of this."

Blake didn't respond. She pushed away the sheer, ridiculous stupidity of it all to the deepest corner of her mind.

Something else was off. From her time in the White Fang, her instincts were fine tuned by a whole decade of combat. Fights against the Schnee guards could become deadly, even though both sides refrained from killing where they could, at least in the skirmishes she'd been in. Right now, her instincts were screaming at her much like in the worst of those cases. Something deadly was coming indeed. Something…

She turned to the genius engineer. "Tony, do you…"

"Hm?" A bag was in his hands. The same bag that the older Tony had given him.

Blake ignored it. "Do you feel like something's wrong?"

"No idea." He opened it and took out a green leaf. "Hey, want one?"

The faunus girl stared at the offered plant as if it was dripping with poison. "What is it?"

"Nepeta cataria. Native to the middle east. And some other places. Fresh sample, even. You want to hold it?"

"What are you up to?" She asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. Come on, no harm."

She grabbed it. Nothing happened.

"Damn it." The man threw the rest away. "That's disappointing."

Blake raised an eyebrow in response.

"It's catnip."

Blake's mind went blank.

Yinsen and Sajiao jumped in to restrain the feral girl physically before she threw Tony out the quinjet. Tony turned to face the wall. Blake couldn't see his expression, but his shoulders shook.

"Let me go! T-That insufferable man!" Was it really catnip that set off her instincts?! In a way she was relieved. On the other hand… Her eye twitched again.

She was about to shake the two off, but then it was her ears that twitched. Her eyes widened.

It wasn't the catnip.

"Get down!" She screamed.

The world went white.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Sora woke up to an annoying repeated beep that just wouldn't stop. "Oh, shut upppp." He slapped his monitor. "Two more minutes, Ren…"

"Sora!" Ren's visage popped up in a window. "Get up! We've got a problem." Her partner didn't budge. "Strange that it is so hard to wake you up, even though you normally wake up the earliest." She mused.

"Zzzzz…" He rolled over to his other side.

"Sora… really." She sighed.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

Weiss slowly drifted to the ground, orange eldritch runes dissipating into nothingness around her. Far off in the distance, the smoking pieces of a quinjet lay scattered.

"Good. Direct hit." The leader of the group grinned. "Smidth, Roma, with me. Rest, support Schnee."

They burst into action, each disappearing as reality seemed to shatter like glass around them.

 **~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\~**

 **A/N: Oh, look. Finally some action. JK.**

 **Please review, talk about what you like and what you dislike!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **MageTGM** **chapter 8 . Aug 12**

 **Dude. Damn. I realized if hulk punched the Yang, The Yang breaka da Hulk. OOF!**

 **Jjpdn:** **Wait, can the Hulk be killed? I thought he's invincible. I know he can be defeated… but hurt?**


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